Empire of Our Own
by sosinsastark
Summary: SEASON 1: Instead of killing 100 juvenile delinquents, they sent us to earth to see if it was habitable. Myself, and my best friend Reed were among 98 others; one pissed off twenty something man faking being a guard, and his younger peeved friend whom he dragged with him. Murphy/OC
1. Chapter 1

**I've had this story in the works for so long, and I just realized that if I want to get anywhere with it mentally I should probably post it. Does that mean I'll be consistent? _I hope so_. I apologize for any grammatical errors, I am both an asshole and quite often, too attention-deficit for my own good. If anyone wants to be a beta, send me a message. I'll be over here, waiting. **

**If anyone wants any characters to have their own story, please message. June, whom you will meet in the next chapter, will probably get her own story. And by probably, I mean I've already started writing her story.**

* * *

No kid should ever have to get used to a prison cell. Unfortunately enough for me, I had to, and did. Our prison section (called the skybox) became a sort of home for me, in a cruel sense. I had a roommate, Reed, whom I love dearly. She had come from the Factory Station, and she and her parents got caught going through trash. 'Salvaging' was considered illegal, and her parents paid with their lives. She was only 14 when they were all caught, however. Being under the age of 18, she was sent to the skybox where she would stay until she turned 18. Once 18, they would set a trial to see if her crimes would cause her to get floated.

Floating was the new age corporal punishment. Apparently, on earth they used to inject criminals with legal chemicals in order to kill them. Now, they get sent out into outer space, dying instantaneously.

I was sent to the skybox when I was 15, only three months after Reed. And here we stayed, until a few hours ago.

A few hours ago, we were sitting in the mess hall. We had made the most rudimentary set of cards years ago, and played them whenever we had a chance. This time, we were playing with two others. Jasper and Monty had become our friends a little over a year ago, when they both were sent to the skybox for stealing and smoking herbs. The most tame of offenses, but enough to get them locked up. They stuck close to us after we prevented a potentially deadly run in between themselves and a couple of what Reed and I called, 'the murder gang' (M.G. for short.)

The murder gang was a group of teenagers our age. The only thing that really set them apart from us however is that they killed people in order to get locked up in the skybox. They weren't actual murderers, though. These were the accomplices. The real murderers were in solitary, foaming at the mouth. Or, at least that is what we liked to speculate. At one point in time when we were younger, Reed and I would draw what we thought the murderers looked like. She had never seen anyone from solitary. I had, though. Which is why no matter how much I liked to joke that they had three heads, I knew they looked like us.

Anyways, we were in the mess hall when table by table, they called us for health inspections. This was typical, so no one thought anything of it. However, once a table left, they never returned. We should've noticed this, but unfortunately we were too focused on our game. It was close, and Jasper and Monty were in the lead. This was extremely abnormal, and we were all thrown. It wasn't until we were forced to pause the game, that we noticed how quiet our surroundings had gotten. Jasper and Monty sauntered into the medic room ahead of us, their egos too big from being in the lead to notice they were walking into a trap. I had tried backing out of the room when I noticed the needles in the guards hands. But I didn't get far when I felt a sharp pain in my upper arm. I blacked out so quickly, I didn't even have time to look around me to see where Reed was.

Which leads me to now. In a dropship, by the looks of it, Next to some passed out blondie whom I have never seen in my life. Of course I would be next to some random-ass blonde. I began looking around, hoping to find Reed. Or at least Monty and Jasper. When I couldn't see her, I became slightly desperate.

"Reed!" I shouted, causing blondie to awaken with a gasp, startling me. I continued staring at her, my mission to find Reed momentarily abandoned. Her eyes finally landed on me, and she began quizzically staring at me.

We stared at each other for a moment, almost sizing each up, before a sharp yell broke my concentration.

"Riley Parker!" I heard Reed yell, and I looked around for the source of her voice. Pulling slightly on the seat belt, I peered around blondie. On the other side of the dropship I could see Reed stuck in-between Monty and Jasper.

Flinging my arms in the air, this time I screamed "Reed Walters!" as I continued to look at her.

Finally she noticed my arms, and a grin appeared on her face as she began flailing her arms at me.

Monty gave me a relieved smile before exchanging a glance with Jasper. Jasper smiled nodding his head back at Monty.

The guy on the other side of me, whom I had failed to pay attention until this moment, finally spoke up. "Welcome back." He said as looked over me, his eyes dead on blondie.

"Oh boy." I whispered to myself. It was apparent I was going to be in the middle of something big.

As if on queue, blondie began glaring at the guy as she said; "Wells, why the hell are you here?"

Slowly I sunk back into my seat, looking from Wells to blondie. This wasn't going to end well for one of them, and although I normally enjoyed watching people argue, I didn't enjoy it when I was literally in the middle.

"When I found that they were sending prisoners," Wells paused, his eyes hesitantly flickering to me. I squinted back, and just at that moment I heard Monty scream from the other side of the dropship.

"We totally whooped you guys' asses, Parker!"

Yup. That was exactly what Wells needed to hear. That not only was the girl he sat next to a prisoner, but one who's ass was handed to her by wimpy little Monty. Wells's eyes awkwardly dropped away from mine before he looked back at blondie with the most pathetic puppy eyes I had seen in a long time.

"I got myself arrested. I came for you." Wells finished, and I frowned at him. Before he could notice me staring however, I quickly adverted my eyes to right in front of me.

Before the awkward silence between the two could grow, the whole ship shook. My hands flew to my seat belt, clutching it. Although I'm sure anyone who had ever been to first year of earth science would know it was us breaking through the atmosphere, blondie still felt the need to remark about it.

"Damn alpha stationers" I hissed. It was clear both her and this wells were both very well off. They were most likely part of the ten percent of people on the ark whom had life a lot easier than the rest of us, those people living in the Alpha station. Clearly Wells was if he thought getting himself arrested would be a good thing to do purposely.

Blondie appeared to be about to speak up, most likely to in remark to my comment, but was cut off my the television screens all throughout the dropship turning on with sharp static noise before Chancellor Jaha appeared.

"Prisoners of the Ark, hear me now." Jaha began. Unfortunately enough for Jaha and myself, I tuned people out when they gave orders. I like to think it's because I have a need to rebel, but Reed always would giggle before giving a salty remark about my lack of attention span.

"Your dad is a dick, Wells." A prisoner over closer to Reed yelled. I gave a quick side glance at Wells. He didn't seem too phased at the comment.

I think I reacted more to it than him, to be honest. I hadn't known he was Jaha's son, and couldn't believe Jaha would send his son anywhere with a bunch of prisoners.

"Space walk bandit strikes again!" Reed cheered, and I couldn't help but grin a bit before leaning forward to look at her. Reed either called other people by their full name, or by a custom made nickname. She always had a few custom nicknames for everyone, my favorite creation of hers for Finn was 'Finn Trashbin', given to him after we watched from afar the amount of prison food he could consume without even batting an eye.

However, in this case; Space walk bandit was extremely fitting. As he slowly floated through air, he began gliding in our direction.

He was smirking at Wells, and when he got close enough he finally said; "Check it out. Your dad floated me after all."

From what I had learned from Finn from the few conversations we had ever had, was that he liked to push people's buttons. Wells must have known this, however.

"You should strap in before the parachutes deploy." Wells remarked to Finn, his face void of expression.

"Hey you two!" Blondie yelled, and I jumped away from her in surprise. "Stay put if you want to live." She continued, and I noticed she was staring at two of the M.G. who were currently in the process of unbuckling. No doubt to follow Finn's dumb example.

That's the thing with those Murder Gang idiots, they were, you know. Idiots.

"Hey, you're that traitor that's been in solitary for a year." Finn said, pointing at blondie. Before blondie could pipe in though, I quickly interjected.

"How do you know who she is?" I asked, frowning at Finn. How does everyone seem to know her but me?

Finn winked at me, and opened his mouth to speak. Before he could get a word out however, he was thrown to the ground. Gravity had kicked in, and I could feel my whole body shake. The pressure of us dropping so fast made me feel like my head was going to burst. My ears began ringing, my hands flew to my ears as I bizzare popping sensation occurred.

"Retrorockets ought to have fired by now." Wells remarked just as my ears seemed to clear.

"Everything on this ship is a hundred years old." Blondie reminded Wells, and I could feel the panic rising in everyone who heard her. "Just give it a second."

"Clarke, there is something I have to tell you." Wells said, revealing blondies name. I probably should've asked her by now, considering I could be dying next to her. "I'm sorry I got your father arrested."

"Whoah there." I interjected, and they both glared at me. "That's a little too much for me."

"Don't talk about my father." Clarke retorted to Wells as I began glaring into the space in front of me.

"Please, I can't die knowing you hate me."

"Is this really an appropriate time to be doing this?" I asked Wells as I began glaring at him.

"They didn't arrest my father, Wells. They executed him. I do hate you." Clarke hissed as tears began forming in her eyes.

"Just kill me now." I whispered as I went back to glaring in front of me.

* * *

The crash landing sucked big time. My head whipped back when we made contact with the ground, and I ended up with a bad bump on my head, a headache from said bump, _and_ I bit my tongue. Its safe to say that I was, by no means one of the first people off the dropship.

"Get your ass up." Reed told me, and at this point she was standing in front of me. Most of the floor we were on had gotten off at this point, and the top floor was beginning to climb down the ladder. "We are on earth."

"I bit my tongue." I mumbled, getting my seatbelt off with one hand and covering my mouth with the other.

Reed snorted quite rudely at my predicament, then tugged my hand away from the mouth (nearly clawing my cheek in the process. She really needs to learn how to trim her nails.) She backed up slightly as she dropped my hand, and I finally got up on wobbly legs.

My balance came back quickly however as I followed Reed out the dropship doors. The sun temporarily blinded both of us, but once I could open my eyes I was even more stunned.

Everything was green. I mean plant-wise, that is. None of the other prisoners were green. Except for the kid with the acne, who was puking next to a tree.

I couldn't help but smile. We were on earth, and it was beautiful, and we hadn't died (yet). I looked over at Reed, and saw she was also grinning.

Jasper walked past us in deep discussion with Monty, and Reed quickly jumped into step beside them. I brought my hand up to my cheek once again, and followed behind them. Man, did my tongue hurt badly.

Slowly, we all made our way around the ship. Jasper spotted Clarke as she drew on a map, and he quickly went up to her.

"Oh cool, a map!" Monty commented excitedly, and both Clarke and I frowned. I frowned because Monty was being a little too nerdy, and Clarke just seemed annoyed by everyone in general. It probably didn't help that Wells was beside her, whom by the conversation they had over my while we crash landed, she didn't like very much.

"They got a bar in this town? I'll buy you a beer." Jasper said, stepping closer to Clarke. For some reason however, Wells didn't like this.

"You mind?" Wells hissed, and he stepped in front of Clarke as he roughly pushed Jasper away.

"Hey!" Both Reed and I yelled in unison as Jasper mumbled 'whoa!' I wanted to step up and defend Jasper, a habit both I and Reed had become accustomed to. But someone else defended him first.

"Hey, hands off of him. He's with us." His voice sent shivers down my spine. I didn't even need to turn my head to know who is was. I knew that voice all too well.

It was the voice of my childhood best friend. The guy who got himself locked up trying to defend me. The guy who was the reason I got locked up when I no longer had him to defend me. I heard ringing in my ears again. The world blurred in and out of focus, but as I slowly turned my head to look at him, it all slowly faded away. Faded away in just the right amount of time to hear Reed say to him,

"Riley here bit her tongue and probably has a concussion."

John Murphy was staring at me, more like glaring actually. There was a slight glimmer of amusement playing in his eyes, most likely from what Reed just said.

"You're not listening." Wells said, which to be honest couldn't be anymore true. He wasn't saying it to me, though. "We all need to go."

If I could, I would've just punched myself in the face for being too transfixed by Murphy to even hear 95% of the conversation. Instead, I forced myself to look away and find out who Wells was talking to. I looked around, and saw an older guy standing next to a girl who looked a lot like him. I'm pretty sure her name was Octavia, and I was beginning to regret not being a social butterfly in the skybox.

"Look at this everybody, Chancellor of the Earth." Murphy spat, sarcasm practically dripping from his words. Trying to avoid attracting attention, I slowly stepped further behind Reed. I focused back on Wells and Clarke, who looked both extremely pissed off. Jasper and Monty quickly backed into Reed, who had to force herself not to yelp in surprise.

We all backed up in just enough time as Wells quickly took the ground we had just abandoned.

"You think that's funny?" Wells asked Murphy, which I knew was a dumb move on Wells's behalf. Of course he thought it was funny, of course everyone but Clarke and himself thought it was funny. It _was_ funny.

"Uhh.." Murphy looked around for a moment, before he moved as quick as lightening, tripping Wells. Wells fell to the ground, a sickening crack coming from his ankle. I cringed at the noise, but everyone else seemed to find it very amusing. Especially Murphy, who smirked with pride.

As if sensing my gaze he looked back in my direction, then his eyes flickered to Monty and Jasper with disgust.

He had changed a lot in solitary, that's for sure. He was a lot taller, and his hair was longer. He had more of a sour attitude. His speed hadn't, however. He was still quick on his toes, which became more evident as he moved to continue fighting Wells.

But Finn for some reason had climbed up onto the dropship just to drop down between the two of them.

"Kid's got one leg. Why don't you wait until it's a fair fight?" Finn asked, and Murphy gave him a disgusted look before taking a step back away from him. He didn't look ready to end the fight however until Octavia came over to Finn.

"Hey, spacewalker." Octavia began, looking at Finn like she could eat him. Hell, she might want to eat him. I don't know what she's in for. "Rescue me next."

Scratch that. She totally didn't want to cannibalize him.

Murphy glared slightly at Octavia before his eyes made it back to me. He was still glaring, however.

"Murph." I whispered, not being able to help myself. That seemed to piss him off more, however. He grimaced, giving one more disgusted once-over of the people around me, (refer to Monty, Jasper, and Reed) before stalking away into the crowd.

"Huh." Reed mumbled once the crowd dispersed, and she finally looked at me. Concern filled her eyes as she noticed me still staring out where Murphy had disappeared. "Man, you are pissed as all hell. Stop frowning like that. Your face will get stuck like that."

"Why would you tell him I bit my tongue?" I asked, my expression calming down in a sense to more of an annoyed tone.

"Better than telling him you're constipated, which is kind of what you looked like." Jasper retorted as he turned to look at us. Reed snorted, both her hands flying up to her face in a failed attempt to not sound like a pig. Monty turned around, an amused smile playing on his face as he looked from Reed to myself.

Finally, I smiled. I was with my friends, on earth. Yeah, Murphy was here. But more importantly, Reed was here. And Monty, and Jasper. Before I could say anything about why I looked constipated however, both Jasper and Monty were pulled away from us by Finn.

"Four of us. Can we go now?" Finn said, and I quickly scooted around Monty to see who he was talking to. I frowned however when I looked and saw it was Clarke.

"Like they are going anywhere without us, right Riley?" Reed jumped in, literally jumping up right next to Jasper.

All eyes were on me, now. I gave a quick sigh and rolled my eyes. What I wanted to do was touch Murphy's face for the first time in years. I mean, talk to him. Yeah, talk to him. I'm not creepy I swear. But instead I'm getting volunteered by my new best friend to do who the hell knows what.

"Sure?"

"Make it 7." Octavia said, clapping her hands as she joined the group. I looked over at Jasper and Monty to see them both nearly drooling. Reed noticed this too, and quickly punched Jasper in the stomach.

"Make it 8, actually." An older girl, wearing a guard uniform said as she swaggered up. She looked to be a year or two younger than the other guard, who was currently hissing something into Octavia's ear as she tried to pull away from him. Her long black hair was unkempt, like Octavia, but it was clear they were not related, even though Octavia came up to her and linked arms, throwing a glare back at the other guard.

At this point, I knew my time on earth was going to be a lot of the old (refer to Murphy, and such), but also a lot more of the new. And I wasn't quite sure if I liked that idea yet or not.


	2. Chapter 2

**So this chapter is considerably shorter than the first one, but goes over a longer period. All I can say on the matter is if you are unsatisfied with the length, life sucks and then you die. I'd probably do longer chapters if people gave some reviews. Hint hint, wink wink. Also, I hope I'll update again next Wednesday, but as I mentioned in the previous chapter; I'm an asshole.**

* * *

Clarke had began to lead the way to what I eventually learned was Mt. Weather. Apparently, we were dropped on the wrong mountain, and we had to walk to get our food supply. I felt like I should've been more bothered by this, but I was too overwhelmed then to even care.

Reed was overjoyed, and went through bouts of skipping, and jumped around from person to person. Octavia and the other brunnette seemed to be in their own world at the beginning of the hike, conversing deeply to each other in hushed tones.

It was an amazing walk, but unfortunately for myself I was too absorbed in the fact that I had seen Murphy to even enjoy it.

"That's it." Reed yelled, making everyone except for the older brunette jump slightly. "Let's go about. I need names people. For all you listening, I'm Reed Walters. And for those of you in the cheap seats," Reed cupped her hands around her mouth and turned around, facing Finn and Clarke whom were leading us. "I was imprisoned because my parents made me help them scavenge."

Clarke visibly cringed at Reed's words, and she started walking faster. Finn glanced over his shoulder momentarily before shaking his head, a sly smile forming on his face.

"Your turn, Miles of Riles." Reed grabbed my elbow, and I grabbed her forearm back.

"I'm Riley." I began, before being nudged sharply in the chest by Reed's elbow. "Parker. Riley Parker. I stole food, because I was hungry, and my food had been stolen from me."

"Are you two related?" The older brunette asked, and noticing the raised brow from Reed, she quickly added, "I'm June Faulkner, and I've been best friends with Bellamy and Octavia for nearly my whole life, which is how I ended up here. I'm a linguist, incase you were curious."

Reed smiled widely at June's response, and quickly dived into how my father's father was her mother's mother's brother. I exchanged a brief glance with Monty, who was smiling, and then quickly he darted his eyes to Jasper. I forced myself to look over and watch Jasper as he trailed after Octavia, then rolled my eyes, and immediately began regretting joining this trip.

* * *

Jasper swung over to the over side of the river, landing very ungracefully. Reed snorted, and I rolled my eyes at her. Jasper quickly sprung back up onto his feet, turned around to looked us. More importantly, to looked at Octavia. Octavia beamed at him, and June nudged her, which only increased her smile.

"We are apogee!" Jasper shouted, throwing his hands in the air. Everyone screamed back at him with excitement, and I grabbed the apogee from Finn. I tried to ignore Finn and Clarke, whom were staring into each other's eyes in front of me. Clearing my throat to get them to move, they didn't even look over at me as they stepped aside.

How freaking rude. They simply moved over, and I slowly moved back as I got ready to swing.

Everything that happened next happened so fast. By the time my feet were off the ground, and I was swinging in the air, Jasper had been harpooned. I heard screaming from behind me, and a sharp cutting noise from above me.

They shot the apogee with an arrow, effectively cutting it. I began falling on Jasper's side of the river, and extremely ungracefully fell on my back. My head hit the ground with a loud crack, and I knew if I hadn't gotten a concussion on the dropship, I sure did now.

My vision fluttered right before the world went black.

* * *

Most of my childhood I was hungry. The only happy times I ever had were with John Murphy. He gave me food, food that was meant for him. He shared everything with me. He even shared his father, and his mother for a time before his father died and she lost her mind.

Murphy wasn't a kind person to most people. He was protective of me, and landed himself in the skybox to protect me. His plan backfired though, and not even a year later I was in there too. He was in the more guarded section though, on a different floor, and I thought I would never see him again. He would turn eighteen before me, and get floated.

When his father died, Murphy gave me his father's ring. I gave him my mother's, who died giving birth to me. That way, we would always have something of each others. We were extremely lame kids, incase you didn't catch onto that yet. I still had his father's ring, although I was doubtful he had my mother's.

I woke up every few hours it seemed like, only to feel intense pain. It was worse than not eating for days. Instead of the pain in my stomach outweighing any bruise I could get, it was the opposite. How I wish I could go back to being hungry. Or even just go to the skybox again. Go back to longing of seeing Murphy again, but being able to laugh with Reed.

Jasper wouldn't stop screaming. Every time I woke up it was because he screamed louder than normal. My head felt like it was being crushed by a dropship landing on top of it, and his screaming was making it worse.

Don't get me wrong, at first I felt bad for him. I know he was it a lot more pain than I was. But after a while of his pain making my pain worse, it got annoying. By the time my head felt even remotely okay enough to open my eyes, I immediately regretted it.

I was tied to the base of a tree. Tiny cuts laced my entire body, and even more curiously had been covered with some sort of plant-based bandage. The cuts weren't big enough to do any intense harm, but big enough to continue bleeding through the poultice. I could still hear jasper crying, but I couldn't see him. He was close, and I had a feeling he was tied to the other side of the tree.

"Jaz?" I tried speaking his name, and it came out extremely hoarse. My whole throat felt like I hadn't had a drink in a week, and had been through a fire. And to be fair, that could all have been true. It had reminded me of when I had a cold when I was a kid, and Murphy had tried scaring me in the halls. I had screamed so loud I couldn't speak for a week after.

"Riley?" I heard him groan, and I could tell the voice was coming from behind. After groaning my name, he eventually went back to screaming. I could tell he was in immense pain, but we were both going to be in even more pain if he kept screaming.

"Remember that two headed deer we saw?" I yelled, hoping he could hear me. He either screamed in response, or just in general. "Well, your screaming is probably attracting things totally way worse than that deer." He didn't respond for a bit, until he screamed again, but this time slightly quieter. "I appreciate the effort, but screaming at all is a total no go." I continued yelling, making it all way worse, per usual.

"Shut up Parker" Jasper screeched, and I tried moving. Which was a total bad idea, by the way. Moving caused all my cuts to start bleeding again.

When the rescue gang finally showed up, I was beyond out of it. I felt almost high from lack of food, water, and blood. Also the head injury, which, I seemed to continue forget about.

Murphy was the first person I saw. He shook me awake. His warm hand rested on my cheek, and I was too out of it to even stop myself from leaning into it. By the time I felt the ropes loosen on me, someone obviously untying them, I finally was able to choke out; "Jasper first."

What I was trying to say was, 'Hey, Jasper is being a total pissy bitch who is like dying. Please save him first, I'm not dying.' But apparently it came out a lot more self-sacrificing than that.

"Don't worry, they already untied your precious boyfriend." Murphy hissed, his mood going sour as he slowly pulled me away from the tree.

I snorted at this, the idea of me dating nerdy Jasper. Of course I didn't mention that I wasn't dating him, I was pretty much high as a kite from dehydration. And the head injury, which, I seemed to continue forget about. Instead, I heard Reed mumble, "For the _twentieth_ time, they aren't dating."

Murphy picked me up easily, to him I must've been like picking up some feathers. "Don't, I'm bloody." I tried explaining that I was going to bleed everywhere on him, and probably had already covered him by him simply picking me up, but instead he chuckled.

"Shut up, Rhy." He whispered, and even though the act of being carried made my whole body scream with pain, I was still able to smile before I passed out again.


	3. Chapter 3

**Honestly don't ever expect me this nice ever again because it's never going to happen. This chapter is literally the size of both previous chapters combined. I'm nearly at the point where I'll actually have to write in order to post, so that's going to be awkward for everyone. Don't ask how its going to be awkward for you. It's sure going to be weird for that guy I'm almost dating. You try explaining why you need to leave because you need to, "Write stuff."**

* * *

When I woke up again the next time, I was lying down, someone holding my hand. Opening my eyes, I realized I was back in the dropship. A few feet away from me Jasper was laid down, and looked like fresh death. My eyes drifted to my hand, and I noticed Reed was sitting in between Jasper and myself, holding both our hands.

Super engrossed with staring at Jasper, she didn't even notice I had woken up until I attempted to get up. Reed jumped, giving me a startled smile. The hold on my hand tightened, and she used it to help pull me up.

Let me just tell you, moving sucked. The wounds may have been washed out and dressed properly, but they still stung like a bitch. On the ark, I was super active. I used to run the treadmills when I was bored. Which was a lot, considering there isn't much to do in jail. That being said, forcing myself to move was horrible. Worse than any pain I had experienced thus far in my life. Well, physical pain at least. Let's save my emotionally traumatizing childhood for another day, shall we?

"You are a hard sleeper, Riley. Didn't know you had it in you to sleep dead through screaming." She said as she finally let go of my hand, letting me slowly get up from the ground.

"Murph's dad was a major snorer. I learned to sleep through anything." I explained, but once I finished I realized that I never told her that. I never told her much about Murphy.

When I had become her roommate, I explained to her my past, but never the details. I tried to bury Murphy, to hope that pretending we weren't so close would somehow make us less close. When in all actuality, all my good memories come from him, or his father.

"Clarke left with Finn and Wells to go find some magical seaweed to save Jasper." Reed said as I finally was able to get up. She didn't bother getting up, probably assuming if I fell, I couldn't really get myself in any worse condition than I was now. It was partially true.

"This the top floor?" I asked, looking around. I hadn't seen the top of the dropship yet, and to be honest it wasn't very impressive. It was a lot more closed in than the bottom, with only a hatch about three feet away from me, presumably to get downstairs.

"I don't know why anyone would ever want to fuck with Murphy. He pretty much one-handedly carried you up the stairs, let alone from where we found you." Reed remarked, eyeing me cautiously. I looked back at her, trying to see if she was telling the truth or not. She smiled weakly, but her left brow was raised. It was her tell, that she was telling the truth.

Holy shit.

"I guess I should thank him, without him you guys might've just left me." I replied jokingly, and Reed finally cracked a genuine smile.

"Nah, I totally would've at least dragged back. You might not have gotten back in one piece, but more than 50% of you would've gotten back. Close enough, right?" Reed played, and we both laughed together. For a second we forgot that we were on the earth, that I was going to quite literally be scarred for life.

That was until party pooper Jasper began moaning. We both stopped laughing, our faces falling.

"He's been doing that non-stop. Most of the time it's a lot louder than that."

Memories of being back at the tree tied up flashed into my mind, and I knew it was time for me to get out of here.

"I need air." I muttered quickly, and Reed nodded without giving me a second glance. She knew I was going to be fine, now she needed to worry about Jasper.

The lower level of the dropship didn't have many people in it, just Octavia and Monty. They both looked eagerly at me as the went down the ladder. Octavia's face turned to disappointment when she realized it wasn't Jasper, and Monty only managed a half smile. Neither got up from there spot, and Monty looked back down and continued tinkering with whatever it was.

As I walked past him, I noticed it was a wrist band. I looked down at mine as I made my way toward the door. It has seriously gnawed my skin off, and simply turning my wrist made pain shoot up my arm.

It was growing darker outside, and a quick look around made me realize just how much these kids were both kids, and delinquents. Two teenagers were by a fire, doing just about anything they could do to each other while keeping their clothes on. I continued staring for a moment while walking, before realizing that I was being super creepy and instead made a sharp turn in the opposite direction of them.

Finally averting my eyes to infront of me, I realized I nearly ran straight into someone's back.

That someone being Murphy, of course. He turned around when he heard me, and although he was still frowning, I could see in his eyes he was relieved to see me alive. Hopefully.

"Should you be up and walking?" Murphy asked, his eyes moving down my body. I looked down, realizing I was wearing what was probably the most ill-covering shirt ever now. It looked like it had been turned into spaghetti, and the bandages around my stomach were well visible. I also apparently no longer had a jacket, which is just swell.

"The grounders owe me a new shirt holy shit." I muttered, picking up pieces of the shirt in my hands. Murphy shook his head, taking off his jacket and letting it drop to the ground next to us. Without a word he began taking off one of his shirts, and I couldn't help myself from sputtering.

"What are you-?" I asked, and I could see him smirk as he pulled off a his short sleeved shirt, leaving his longer sleeved one on.

"Calm down, I'm giving you a new shirt. You can't really walk around a bunch of delinquents wearing that thing, can you?" Murphy remarked as he lifted the short sleeved shirt for me to take.

"I can't take that." I mumbled, frowning at it before I looked back at his face. He rolled his eyes and sighed.

"It already has your blood on it." Murphy reminded me, making me quickly snatch it.

"Fair enough." I whispered, holding it and looking around. I noticed the eyes of some of the guys, more importantly some of the guys I had knew in a bad sense before I was jailed, staring at me. "I really need to go and put this on, They are looking at me like I'm dinner." I whispered, more to myself than Murphy, but of course he caught every word.

Without uttering anything to me, he quickly grabbed me, one arm around my back as he led me away from the creepers. The farther we moved away from the fire, the darker it became.

It wasn't super dark, but the sun was definitely setting. We got closer to a tree and Murphy quickly pushed me towards it. That ass hat apparently thought I should change behind a fucking tree. I was going to argue, until I saw the look on his face. He was just waiting for me to complain.

I groaned, but wordlessly I went behind the tree. Now it was really hard to get out of the stringy mess. My back pretty much screamed at me to stop, but once I got Murphy's warm shirt on, the warmth calmed it down slightly. There wasn't much else to do with my old shirt but just drop it on the ground. It was beyond savable. What else was I going to do, save it and look back at it fondly, thinking about the time I got captured and nearly killed?

When I got out from behind the tree, I noticed Murphy waiting for me. He nodded his head when he realized I was good to go back, and started to leave.

"Murphy, wait." I said, mentally reaching out for him. I would've physically, but I was already in too much pain. If he pulled away from me, I think my body would've broke. He stopped, but didn't look back at me. "Thanks. For the shirt, for carrying me back from the tree."

Now queue Murphy being a dick. He shook his head, and looked at me with a frown on his face. "You're so fucking dumb." Okay. Rude much?

"Okay, there's no need to be an asshole. You could've just let me die." I began, glaring back at him.

Instead he stopped focusing on me, and looked behind me.

"We need to move, now." Murphy mumbled, turning his back to me once again, about to leave.

"What the-" I began, looking around at the fog that was descending in from just about every direction.

"NOW!" Murphy yelled, grabbing my hand roughly and running back towards the dropship.

My whole body screamed as I ran, and I could feel the cuts opening up again. But what hurt even worse was the fog, when it got closer it burned my skin and lungs, which were already feeling burnt from running.

We made it into the dropship just as they started to close the doors. Without another word to Murphy, I ripped my hand from his and made my way up the stairs to the second floor. If he was going to be a pissy asshole, then I wasn't going to be around him.

When I got up the stairs, I was ready to sleep again. Without saying a word to Octavia, Monty, or Reed, I quickly just cuddled back into the spot I had woken up from. It wasn't the most comfortable spot or position, but considering my options, I decided to settle for it.

"You almost died, Riley." Reed said as I slowly felt myself drifting to sleep. "Don't scare me like that again."

* * *

What is really rude about Reed's and my relationship, is that she never finds it necessary to wake me up. I know it's hard to wake me up, but that's not an excuse. I mean, it is, but it's a shitty one.

During the night, I managed to sleep through Jasper's groaning. And, apparently Murphy trying to kill Jasper. Insane, am I right?

I do remember at one point asking what was going on, but everyone told me to shut up. And I mean everyone. From that one moment I remember, I can see Octavia's, Monty's, Reed's, even Murphy's mouths all saying 'Not now Riley.' I think even Jasper joined in, and he was literally on death's door.

So I did what anyone who was half asleep would do when everyone tells them to go back to sleep; I went back to sleep.

When I woke up finally in the morning, everyone was in a foul mood. Octavia and Monty were still upstairs, but Reed had finally gone downstairs. I could already tell they were angry with me for something that Murphy did last night.

Instead of begging for their forgiveness, or doing much of anything with them, I promptly crawled to the hatch door, and went down the stairs. The crawling definitely didn't make it my best exit ever, but you know. You win some, you lose some.

When I finally found Reed, she was being casually harassed by some guy next to a shoddy water trough. That wasn't going to fly with me, and I knew I had to do something. Not saying whatever I could do would be effective, but that's not the point.

I made my way over to them, and immediately his eyes flew up to me. I know I looked like a hot mess. They cleaned off a lot of the dirt on my body when they bandaged me, but my shirt was now five times too big for me, courtesy of Murphy, and covered in blood. At least I could take comfort in it being my blood, but from his point of view it could've been my last victim. I could play up the distressed look my pants now had from all the slashes, but I already knew everything about me looked distressed. Which is why when I started walking up and he started smirking at me, that I had to do a double take.

"I don't think she wants to talk to you." I tried to keep my voice even, but in all actuality, he gave me the creeps. Like, crawl in a hole and never see anyone again kind of creeps.

"Oh, but I'd love to talk to you instead." He cooed, making me take a step back when he began getting closer.

I clenched my hand without thinking, and once again a sharp pain went up my arm from the wristband. I flinched in pain, and looked down in surprise at the wrist band. He took this as a chance to get closer, which was a bad move on his part, really. Before he could even bring his hand up to touch me, he was roughly pushed to the ground.

Murphy had, in my opinion, appeared out of nowhere. Although to be honest, I wasn't really paying attention to my surroundings so he could've been next to us the whole time.

"She's with me, Connor. Don't even think about it." Murphy hissed as he backed up so he was standing next to me. The look on his face was one I had seen a few times; the same face before he got himself thrown in the skybox.

"Oh really?" Conner tested, looking directly at me for a reaction. And boy, did I react.

"Yes!" I all but screeched, quickly sliding behind Murphy so Conner could no longer look at me. There was something about Connor's eyes, they made me feel like I was in danger. I don't like feeling like I'm in danger. Reed, without having to be told to so, quickly jumped from her spot and hid behind me.

A second after she jumped behind me, she looked down at the cup of water in her hands. She looked up at me, mouthed 'Jasper' then darted into the dropship.

"Why does Jasper get water?" I mumbled as I watched her leave. Connor had crawled away a bit before getting up and slinking off, but I was too afraid to look and see where he went. I had a feeling it wasn't over between us and him yet. Without saying a word to me, Murphy grabbed a cup from the trough and scooped it full of water before handing it to me.

Everything had changed between us. We were no longer these two kids who were inseparable. Now, everything was just weird. He was still sticking up for me, but he was also trying to kill Jasper. (apparently, at least. Like I said, I was out like trout.)

Then the nightmare I had before earth came back to me. For the last few pre-earth months, I would see him get floated in my dreams. It was getting closer to his 18th birthday, and that had haunted my waking life in the skybox. Now, he was here. I got to see him alive, and instead of hugging him, and having a happily ever after, I got me nearly dying, and a consistent rain of being told to shut up.

I just, I had to.

I gave him an apologetic glance before I threw my hands around his neck, holding him close. I had to stand on my tip toes to do so, which hurt, but was worth it. The icing on this rad little cake was when he held me back. I was thrown back to the last time we had hugged, before he was sent to the skybox. He had held me close before he went to beat the shit out of some people. Romantic, am I right? No? Fair enough.

Keep in mind though, my back hurt like a mother fucker. My whole body hurt, actually. And once we slowly let go, my wrist hurt even more. And I still had a head injury, which, I seemed to continue to forget about.

"Holy shit." I whispered, pain shooting through my body. The cuts had sealed themselves onto the bandages, and were just ripped off from my movement.

"Clarke said you had intense brain swelling." Murphy said as one of his hands remained on me, slowly working its way from my back to my forehead. At least he hadn't forgotten about my head injury. That made one of us. "For a day there, we thought you were going to die." I'm not entirely sure if he was aware of himself as he pushed my hair away from my face, before his hand fell down to his side.

That revelation hit me like a ton of bricks. I almost died. The grounders nearly killed me.

"You should go back to sleep." It had felt nice to hear him say that to me. "Before you hurt yourself again." Okay, nevermind.

I went to drink my water, ignoring what he said, when once again the shitty ass wristband rubbed up against my skin. It sent electricity up my hand, and without meaning to, I dropped the glass of water.

Murphy watched it fall and then gave me a look that said, 'See? that's what I mean.' Which, if you think about it, is rude. It's not my fault my wristband was trying to ruin my life.

"I need this off of me first." I remarked, holding my wrist up limply. He looked slightly surprised, which I didn't understand until I realized that was the arm that hands' wore his father's ring.

Totally awkward.

He must've decided not to remark on that fact, and instead pointed in the direction of a tent.

"Oh, what?" I sputtered. At this point, it was safe to say I was confused. I asked to get my wristband off, not go to pound town. Tiny difference. I know all the kids were doing it, but mind you I spent my puberty years in a maximum security prison.

My face must be super easy to read though, because he sighed and muttered, "Just get in the damn tent, I'll take off the wristband in there."

"Well." I mumbled, "As long as we were on the same page." I started walking towards the tent, Murphy following me, shaking his head slightly and rolling his eyes.

The tent was home-like. It had a makeshift bed, which totally looked way more comfortable than the floor I've been living off of. Just looking at it reminded me of all the cricks in my neck from sleeping in a curled up ball, trying to find a way my bones wouldn't painfully press into the hard metal of the dropship floor. It even had not one, but two sleeping bags. Leave it to Murph to steal more than one. He doesn't even need two, which was obvious from how one was nearly heaped onto the ground. I looked back at him after I got fully inside. He stepped in the tent with as much ease as someone who needs to crouch to get in the hole could probably do. He pointed at the bed, and I took that to mean to sit on it. Thankfully for me, my brain was no longer confusing normal social queues for sexual innuendos.

I moved the sleeping bag that was nearly falling before I sat down, and immediately felt the downy warmth as I draped it around myself. I could approve of his choices, because damn they were nice. While his back was turned and he was looking through a wooden crate that was on a shitty navy folding chair, I quickly wrapped myself in both of the sleeping bags.

I feel like now that death had been on my doorstep, and was all around me, I had lost all my chill. Pre head injury Riley would never have done this. She would've wanted to, but worried too much about someone making a comment.

Not when I was a child, though. Maybe being around Murphy brought out my childhood self. Regardless, I approved. If chill-less Riley meant sleeping bags, and hugs, then I'm down.

He turned around with some horrible looking pliers. With one hand, he pushed the crate off the chair. It fell on the ground and other tools spilt over, but he didn't seem to mind. Instead he pulled the chair over, and sat on it.

Our knees touched, and he held his hand out ready to grab mine. I pulled my hand out of the sleeping bag, and he took it and rested it on his knee. Every part of him was super warm. I'm sure my hand felt like ice, but he didn't seem to notice or care. He took the pliers and put them in between the metal of the wristband, and my wrist. The cold metal felt good on my rubbed skin. He paused for a moment, looking up at me. I looked back into his eyes.

"This is going to hurt." He said, and before I could make a snide remark about how I was tortured and nearly dead as of a few days ago, the pliers snapped down on the metal, bending it at the end where the two pieces of metal touched.

Holy mother of god he was right. With one last jerk, the two pieces of metal snapped away from each other at the hinge. But not before it sent jolts of electricity up my body. I leaned over in pain, my head getting closer to my hand.

The electricity caused my head to start pounding again, and I was starting to notice that Murphy had 4 knees instead of two. Wait, that didn't make sense. Slowly, Murphy took his hand that was free of the pliers and pushed me back into the bed. Now, he had two faces. Which still didn't sound right. Both of his heads shook at me, cocking a knowing smile.

My head hit the pillows, which he also apparently had two of. Or, according to my eyesight as of then, four. Holy shit seeing doubles was weird. Murphy still held my hand as he pulled the wristband off, and gave my hand one last squeeze before he set it down next to me.

"I'll clean that out while you're asleep." He whispered, quickly petting my hair (which I wouldn't have recommended. Totally gross.) and leaving the tent.

When I closed my eyes, I took comfort in not seeing double, and I quickly fell back to sleep. Damn, head injuries make you sleep a shit ton.

* * *

By the time I woke up and felt refreshed, nightfall was coming again. It always sucks when you wake up and are ready for the day, but the day is actually gone. I was alone in the tent, which was to be expected.

I got out of the tent to nearly be ran into by Clarke. She stormed by with Finn, only to be stopped a few feet away by Octavia.

"It's about time, they are going to kill Jasper." Octavia whispered to Clarke. She needed to work on her whispering, though. I heard it as clear as day.

Also, I really needed to stop sleeping through the drama. I missed out on some class A shit, apparently. I had no clue who 'they' were that wanted going to kill Jasper, but I had a feeling it was Murphy's doings.

"Yeah, I got it. Come on, let's talk." Clarke replied, trying to usher Octavia back into the dropship. It was too late though, because Octavia's eyes had locked onto something. I followed her gaze and realized she was staring at a form on the ground near the fire, covered with a jacket.

Someone had fucking died.

Octavia ran towards the body, momentarily getting stopped by her brother Bellamy who was begging her to stay back. Instead, she shoved him away and continued to the body, kneeling down next to it.

I was too afraid to move, to see who it could possibly be. I didn't have to see though, because she said Atom's name, and I knew it had to be him. I didn't know Atom very well, but I could tell from the tone in her voice she had. June glared at Bellamy as she kneeled down with Octavia, obviously upset with his methods of trying to make his sister avoid the cold hard truth. June wrapped her arms around Octavia, and let Octavia crumble into her.


	4. Chapter 4

**Yet another short chapter. You only have yourselves to blame, really. Thanks so much to Tinseltown for reviewing! You can all thank her, really. If it wasn't for the review, I'd probably just wait a few more days. As I've mentioned before, I'm an asshole.**

* * *

Atom was dead, but thanks to Clarke's tea, (which tastes like moldy grass, in case you were wondering) Jasper was alive. Clarke tried to baby me into sleeping more, but at this point I was beyond wired. I don't even want to know how long cumulatively that I was asleep, I just know it was long enough.

With that being said, they still didn't want me doing anything usual. Apparently, once you've nearly died they want you to wait at least a week before you do anything too life threatening.

So, I got to man the fire. Which literally meant Clarke sat me down on a log next to the fire with a blanket and a huge canteen of 'moldy grass tea' and told me to make sure it didn't go out.

At one point Murphy strolled by slowly with a huge smirk on his face before going into his tent to sleep. It was probably very amusing to anyone who passed. I'm pretty sure I was glaring at the fire.

At one point in time later in the night, the young blond girl whose name I didn't know (because I don't like kids. They are needy, and never seem to understand metaphors, theoretical scenarios, or sarcasm.) came out of the dropship and walked into the woods. Probably to pee, when I was that age I feel like I had to go all the time.

After a while thinking about peeing, I realized I needed to go. That's probably what happens when you drink a canteen full of 'moldy grass tea'. I stared at the fire for a minute, contemplating whether or not to leave it. If the fire for some crazy reason went out while I was gone, I would be known as the girl who couldn't even watch a fire. Not that I wanted to be known as the fire watcher, either.

Once the urge to pee got too great, I threw a log on the fire and dashed off in the same direction she did.

Once I got further away from the fire, I realized I should've grabbed a flashlight, or something. It was nearly impossible to see that far ahead. I took some comfort in knowing Wells was watching somewhere close, so I wouldn't die.

Probably just accidently have him witness me peeing. Which in all honesty might be worse than dying.

When I passed the tree he was supposed to be by though, I got nervous. That is until I tripped over something. I groaned as I tried yanking my leg back to my body, brushing dirt off my shirt. It was a lot harder to pull my leg to my body, and when I heard noises from around me, I stopped.

I waited for my eyes to adjust, hoping that the Grounders hadn't come to finish me off. But when my eyes focused, staying silent went out the door.

My foot was lodged in between Well's arm and head. I couldn't help but to let myself scream, and when I realized I was probably attracting everyone's attention and Wells still wasn't moving, I yanked my leg, jumped up and ran back to the dropship.

I didn't even make it back to the campfire before I ran directly into someone. Finn had been running in the direction of my scream, but wasn't coming directly from the dropship, so colliding into him was incredibly easy. His flashlight whacked me in my ribs, knocking me out of breath.

"Wells." I coughed out, now needing to pee even worse. I pointed to where I came from and he pointed his flashlight in that direction. Wells body was completely visible under shine of the light. Wells's eyes were open wide, and his mouth agape. The ground around his neck was darker, and had a glimmer to it.

Finn ran towards Wells, turning him over. I couldn't move, too overwhelmed. A few minutes later Clarke came running, along with Bellamy and a few others. Clarke crumbled, bursting into tears just like Octavia had for Atom.

Noticing I still needed to pee, Bellamy was nice enough to inform me there was a bathroom on the dropship. I didn't need to be told twice, and I ignored the stares of everyone who was now awake at camp when I ran through and into the dropship, to the bathroom. I stayed in that bathroom after I got there for a long time. After I peed, I literally just sat on the floor for a bit, trying to forget Wells's face. Wells' face would always haunt me. That was the first time I tripped over a dead body, and I had a feeling at that moment that it wouldn't be my last.

When I finally felt strong enough, I got up and decided to wash my hair in the sink. Which, with the amount of blood in my hair, took a lot longer than normal. There wasn't much soap left, so I tried to use a minimal amount.

* * *

A few hours later, Bellamy found me still hanging out in the bathroom. He literally just barged in, which if you think about it, was quite rude. I had wanted to yell at him about how I could've been naked, or actually still peeing, but I had a feeling he'd make some remark about how I nearly died earlier in the week and how he probably saw a lot of my body when they were fixing me up.

Bellamy forced me back into the room with Jasper, and I spent the rest of the night braiding Jasper's hair as June watched both of us from the corner, a faint smile on her face. That's not exactly what Bellamy had told me to do, but I had to do something to get my mind off Wells' death. Everytime I closed my eyes I saw his face, and if there had been any food in my stomach I know I would've thrown it up.

I spent the next few days pouting around with Reed, watching as they started building a wall around camp. Due to previous injuries, (refer to me nearly dying earlier) I was allowed to watch. Reed was forced to help at first, but once she accidentally dropped a log on Bellamy's foot, she was told to sit down with me and tend fire, and occasionally help with Jasper's needs. It wasn't all bad, though. We got to watch some extremely attractive men carry heavy logs, although some of the guys did give us rape-eyes.

By the third day of us sitting by the fire, Murphy had enough, and once Reed got up to help Jasper with his physical therapy, Murphy roughly grabbed my arm and had started dragging me out of camp. His hair was astray and he had a backpack slung over his shoulder.

"What the fuck Murph." I hissed under my breath as he continued to lead me further from camp, his grip on my arm only loosening slightly.

Finally once we got to a clearing he let up on his grip, turned in his tracks and looked at me. He looked away for a moment before he quickly tossed the backpack over by a large tree.

"You need to learn how to defend yourself." Murphy said, a timid look still on his face as he turned his attention back to me.

I had already known why. I mean, I had nearly died earlier, and although I was now healed enough to move without opening wounds, I was still too afraid to. I had figured, if the grounders didn't grab me again at this point, then one of the Murder Gang might. Murphy had to just rub it in further, however. He tossed me a blade, made from the exterior of the ship, and before I could ask how he made it, (It was obviously his. It had his initials on the inside, like everything he put his hands on.) he cut me off.

"I'm going to walk away from the camp one day, to take a piss," Murphy started, and my eyes went back to him, while I wore a frown. "And Connor, or someone, will come and grab you. You will have wished the grounders had killed you after they do."

We stood glaring at each other for a while before I finally nodded my head. "Are you going to call me an idiot again if I thank you for protecting me? Because if so I can just-" I started, and before I could finish Murph was coming at me with a knife. I quickly dived out of his way, but he didn't falter as he turned back towards me, twirling the knife in his left hand.


	5. Chapter 5

**Is this chapter long? Longer than the last one. Honestly, you should all give _Keliza153_ a round of applause for reviewing. Otherwise, I would've sat on this a little longer. Why? Because I'm an asshole. **

**The next chapter is going to be Murphy's Law, and the chapter will be named accordingly as a warning. It took me so long to write that chapter, and I'm still working on the editing. You know what speeds me up though? Reviews.**

* * *

At that point our training had begun, and let me tell you, I lost count of how many times he had knocked me to the ground. Every moment I tried to attack, he was able to counteract it perfectly, and shove me down. This went on for what had felt like days.

"Are you listening to me at all?" Murphy asked as he walked around me. I was once again on the forest floor, and I was beginning to wonder if I should just stay where I was, when he sighed and retreated to the tree where the backpack was, and sat down at the base.

I lifted myself up once I realized he wasn't going to jump at me, while he opened up the backpack and took out a bottle of water. He took a sip out of it and lifted it in my direction, nonverbally offering it to me. I smiled lightly and walked over to him, and he watched me as if he was taking in my every movement. He leaned his head slightly to the left, so I sat down next to him on that side.

The bottle of water was still in his hands and I slowly grabbed in from him, my fingers jolting slightly from the warmth of our fingers brushing as he let go of the bottle. The water tasted slightly of plastic and warm rain. Which, in case you're wondering, isn't the best taste. It was better than nothing, and considering most of our water was collected from tarps that were set out to catch rain, it was a pretty standard taste.

"So, earth." I mumbled, and I felt his eyes leave the backpack and land on me. Suddenly the closeness of him was almost overbearing. Our shoulders were touching, and the heat radiating off of him was intoxicating.

His chuckle shook his whole body, and I could see from out of the corner of my eye he started nodding his head. "So, earth indeed."

Silence filled the air, and after a few minutes Murphy started moving again, and grabbed some jerky and fruit from inside the backpack. Without saying another word, he handed an apple-like fruit and some jerky to me before he grabbed some more out of the bag for himself.

"You do know why I stopped visiting, right?" I finally asked. Murphy's whole body went rigid next to me, and I desperately wanted to reach out for him. I could tell this subject wasn't going to be a pleasant one for myself or him, but we needed to talk about it.

"I didn't know until I had seen you on earth. I had heard rumors. But you hear a lot of rumors on the level I was on, and not all of them are true." Murphy said, his hands clenching. His nails started digging in on the fruit, tearing tiny holes in the rind and letting the juices flow out. "When did you get locked up?"

"About a week after I had seen you last." I admitted, looking down at my lap and nervously tearing the jerky into bits.

Murphy let out a deep breath, and his whole body eased. He let the fruit drop out of his hand, and it fell over his knee and onto the ground. "Is that how you met Reed?"

"Yeah." It was my turn to chuckle. "When I first met Reed, the first words she said to me," I began, my face lighting up as I turned my body slightly to look at him better, "was, and I'm not making this up," At this point Murphy raised a brow, a smile starting to form on his face, "she said; 'Oh good, I have a new roommate. I hope you don't know how to make shanks out of mattress springs as well, because I don't know if I can stomach being woken up at three am again to someone holding a spring to my neck and mumbling a satanic ritual'."

Murphy shook his head, trying to force himself from smiling. Seeing Murphy smile again brought a sense of ease to me that I never thought I would feel again. His smile left too soon, though.

"How did you meet Jasper and Monty?" The venom in his words was toxic, and without even thinking about it I grabbed his hand. The hand that had been squeezing the life out of the fruit, and was now sticky as hell. For reference, I hate stickiness. But for his sake, I let it slide for the time being.

"A few months ago they had been brought in, and about a week after, Reed was forced to take measures into her own hands to make sure they wouldn't get killed. I swear if it wasn't for the fact that Reed is a distant cousin of mine, I would've killed that girl myself. But she has a certain charm, when she's not you know, pointing out your flaws and saving people's lives." I squeezed his hand, and he squeezed mine back. Which, used to be a game of ours. What? Nobody said we weren't lame ass kids.

"Jasper looks at you like the world shines around you." Murphy mumbled, and refused to make eye contact with me.

"In his defense, you've literally have only have seen him before he had met Octavia, and now that he has, he nearly died and is looking at just about everyone like that." I said, and was about to force him to look at me when he finally did it himself. His brow was once again raised, and it forced me to add, "Except for you. But I think he is convinced anyone he didn't know pre-near death is inherently evil."

Silence fell between us as I looked down at our hands, once again realizing he was holding the hand that wore his father's ring.

"I don't blame him for having looked at you like that." He said, and in disbelief I let go of his hand. Once again he smiled, before smirking. "You grew up beautifully, Rhy." He said as he let go of my hand as well. Feeling overwhelmed, and like the earth had turned the heat ten degrees higher than just a moment ago, I playfully pushed him before turning myself back so I could start eating lunch.

"You don't need to be such an asshole." I remarked, smiling while I threw pieces of the torn jerky into my mouth.

"Oh really, I'm being an asshole?" Murphy played, and nudged me with his shoulder as his laughter filled the air.

I brought my hand to my mouth to prevent him from seeing the food in my mouth as I turned my head, nodded and laughed.

"I pay you a compliment and I'm the asshole?" He teased, gnawing off a piece of jerky with his teeth and chewing it loudly.

"Are you questioning my logic?" I asked, my hand still over my mouth. You know, being polite and shit. Besides, you can't trust Murphy's compliments.

"Oh no, I would never." Murphy said, and he smiled at me before looking off in front of him, the smile remaining on his face, and without even thinking, I leaned into him, our shoulders colliding, and butterflies rising from my stomach.

Or at least, I had hoped they were butterflies. But I had never thrown the option of it being food poisoning off the table when I had been letting juvenile delinquents scavenge and make my meals.

Not even thirty minutes later we were back to our mock fighting. It felt nice to run around, and although every time I hit the ground my head spun, I did like it when he pulled me back up. Maybe I had been imagining it, but it seemed like as the day progressed he held onto my hand longer, and was gentler on me. Our conversations were as sporadic as my ability to defend myself. So we conversed randomly and when we did, it seemed to slightly surprise us both.

"Did you make any friends in your section of the skybox?" I finally let myself ask the question I had been dying to know ever since I saw him traipsing around with some of the other more notorious convicts.

He frowned slightly, before backing up from his strike pose and walking around me. "I wouldn't call them friends." I had to start turning to keep eye contact with him as he kept walking in a circle around me, "They are like bugs following the light. They all want power. Luckily for Mbege and myself, we got ourselves in good standing once we landed on earth, but before then on the skybox, it was mostly every man for himself."

John Mbege was another convict around our age, whom I didn't know much about. He normally sauntered around camp with Murphy, Miller, and the rest of Bellamy's twisted crew of delinquents.

"So the people you spend most of your time with aren't your friends?" I asked, frowning at him. He finally stopped pacing around me and sighed deeply, his shoulders slumping momentarily as he lifted his hand to rub his eyes.

"Let's just say," He began, dropping his hands and staring into my eyes. "If I was in trouble, they probably wouldn't come to help me."

Finally, after a long drawn out silence, I whispered; "I would."

He chuckled, nodding his head. "Well good thing I'm never in trouble then." He began, as he swiftly made his way over to me, "Because I would be screwed." His hands roughly grabbed my shoulders, about to push me down. Without even thinking, I lifted my leg and somehow maneuvered my way around so I could hook him behind his knee, and he went crashing down.

I should highlight the fact I hadn't been thinking, because he was still holding onto me. Of course, as luck would have it, I came tumbling after him, and landed on his back.

"See, sometimes I can be helpful." I quipped, not even bothering to try to get up yet. Would it be wrong to say it felt good to be laying on his back?

"I'm still holding the knife." Murphy remarked dryly, bringing his hand around to wave the knife.

"I could be choking you or something." My arms went around his neck, pulling his head up off of the ground.

I was way too proud of myself, and while I was basking in joy, he elbowed me in the ribs. I fell onto my back beside him on the ground, and he took no time to climb ontop of me, covering my body with his. His arms kept him from crushing me with his weight, and right leg somehow found its way in between mine, further preventing physical suffocation.

However, mentally I felt like I was being suffocated. His face was mere inches from my own, and whenever I inhaled I seemed to be breathing in his exhale. Which, if I learned anything from my science classes, meant I wasn't getting oxygen. And yet, for some reason I was enjoying the closeness, and was reveling in breathing his stale carbon dioxide. His eyes searched mine, and we stayed like this for what seemed like hours; in a stalemate as each of us waited for the next move to be made. My eyes involuntarily went to his lips, which as to be expected were chapped. By the time I looked back at his eyes I noticed he was staring at my lips, with a hint of what looked like longing.

Time nearly came to a halt however as his lips found mine. Rough collided with the smooth, but his lips felt so at home with mine. (Side note, Reed had found some aloe plants a few days earlier, and we have been using them for just about everything. Including to prevent the pain of chapped lips.)

Murphy lowered himself, our bodies folding into each other like collapsable chairs.

The kiss ended too soon in my opinion, and once our eyes found each other's again, I could tell he felt the same. Although, I could be making that up. I did have a head injury at one point, that I still keep forgetting about. His eyes continued to bore into mine as he lifted himself off of me, and up onto two feet. Momentarily, he crouched slightly, lending me a hand. When I took it, he quickly pulled me up and continued pulling me until our bodies were once again touching. I continuing looking into his eyes as he looked into mine. I looked away and tried pulling away finally, growing tired of the building tension. I wasn't quite sure my heart could take anymore of it when he finally spoke.

"Never forget your place, Rhy." He whispered, and my eyes shot back to his. He was once again giving me a grave serious stare.

"And where's my place?" I asked, letting him enveloped me further as his arms wrapped around my body, his hands making their way to my hips.

"Right here." He remarked darkly, and before I could make a snarky comment about wanting clarification, (such as, 'right here with you, or right here in general, or just with you.') his mouth collided with mine again. And, as we continued kissing, I realized I didn't care for clarification because I was with him. Unless he really did just mean I belonged in that one patch of grass on earth.


	6. Murphy's Law

**It's my Birthday! I'm updating on my birthday. It made sense to put Murphy's Law out on my birthday. Why, you may ask. My great grandfather's name was John R. Murphy.**

 **This chapter was depressing to write. I hope I got it across that this event was extremely scarring, not just for Murphy, but for Riley.**  
 **Thank you so much to Keliza153 and apaperheart for reviewing. Those meant the world, and you can thank them for me updating on my birthday.**

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I'm not even going to lie, Murphy was a territorial asshole most of the time. He wrote his initials on everything, and if it wasn't for the fact that carving his initials into my skin would be immensely painful, I'm sure he would've done it. Instead, he settled on roughly pushing me into a tree right in front of the guard post, and forcing his lips onto mine. Although to be honest it wasn't so much of a forcing, more of just a surprising turn of events in my mind.

I never had thought that wearing his shirt, and letting him kiss me, (and to be fair, kissing him back.) would have landed me in as much trouble as it did. But, I guess when a society is run by delinquents, you can't expect democracy.

The next day had started as they had been for a few days, with me waking up to Reed nearly pushing me down the dropship's stairs to wake me up. Jasper was still sound asleep, and as we made our way to the fire, she mentioned to me how today Jasper would finally be walking outside of the dropship, and hopefully even outside of the wall.

We ate breakfast as I watched the fire, and Reed prattled on about trivial things she would try to get done today. Our aloe stash was running low, and Reed had also read about other plants we could use for similar uses. She had wanted to go with Monty, but because he was too busy with trying to communicate with the ark, she was forced to settle for Sterling. Whom, she considered her, 'Sterling silver choice.'

Reed and Sterling had left about an hour after breakfast, but not before she waggled her brows at me and gave Murphy a weird side glance. She also hastily threw down a few aloe plants at me, hoping I could work on tearing them apart while I tended the fire.

Engrossed in my work tearing off the thick layer of skin off the aloe, I didn't even notice when Octavia started cheering behind me. I set down the knife I was using, (courtesy of Murphy, which was evident from the initials inside) when I felt cold hands wrap around my head, covering my eyes.

I let out a small squeak, and carefully put down the jar of aloe onto the log beside me before my hands flew up to my eyes, trying to pry off the hands. He let go quickly, and I took no time to jump up and turn around.

In the flesh for the first time, Jasper was outside of the dropship post injury. I couldn't contain my joy for him, and I jumped over the log swiftly hugged him. Finally, he began to laugh as he wrapped his arms around me, this time lifting me up and twirling me around. Unable to contain myself, I shrieked before I started to laugh, and he carefully planted me on the ground again.

Without any further words spoken, Octavia grabbed him by the hand and started leading him to our main exit (that in all actuality was really just a big separation between logs).

No longer in the mood to sit down, I decided to throw another log into the fire and gave myself the excuse of walking about twenty feet, to grab more wood from the larger pile we had. I was off in my own world, enjoying the sun and trying to block the rest of the world out from around me, when suddenly I heard someone yelling.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Murphy?" The voice wasn't too familiar to me, so when I looked over I immediately regretted it. Murphy was lazily zipping up his trousers, and on the ground beside him was Connor, who appeared to be wet. Why, you may ask? Because Murphy peed on him, apparently. Clearly, I choose my friends/romantic interests wisely.

Murphy shot me a lopsided smirk before diverting his attention back to Connor. "Look at you, you wanted a water break. Get back to work." Oh, I stood to be corrected. Not only did he pee on someone, he peed on them because they were thirsty. Just lovely.

I couldn't help but stop and gape at him. He continued to stare back, the smirk only slightly receding. I continued to stare at him, and I know at this point I was glaring as I continued to make my way to grab a log. Finally, he sighed and yelled, "No water until this section is up!" He turned around to look at everyone before he looked back to me. "What are you staring at, huh?" He teased, and I wanted to smack the smirk off of his face.

Punching people I understand. Don't ask me why, violent childhood probably. But peeing on people? That's just weird. And gross, and unsanitary, and childish, and a bunch of other adverbs I couldn't think of off the top of my head.

Blonde hair pushed me, and suddenly I was nearly on the ground. And by blonde hair, I mean Clarke. She was storming to Murphy, hellbent written all over her face. I didn't blame her at that moment, I had assumed she was against people peeing on each other. I could agree with that sentiment.

"You son of a bitch!" Clarke screeched, storming up to Murphy and getting right into his face. I was a little taken aback, I had thought it was my job to get into his face. Clearly, I was wrong.

"What's your problem?" Murphy hissed, taking a step back from her. Apparently he didn't think it was her job to get into his face. I agree.

"Recognize this?" Clarke lifted up her hand, practically shoving a knife in Murphy's face.

"It's my knife" Murphy replied, taking yet another step back away from Clarke. Finally I decided to move closer, to get a better view. As clear as day, his initials were on the inside of the metal. "Where'd you find it?" Murphy asked, and although he sounded annoyed, I could hear a tinge of timidness.

"Where you dropped it after you killed Wells." I could see the tears forming in her eyes again, and I had to look away for a moment at the mention of Wells. Once again his dead face came back to haunt me.

"Where I what?" He sputtered, giving Clarke a disgusted look. "The grounders killed Wells, not me."

"I know what you did, you're going to pay for it." She once again took another step to him, and finally I decided to intervene.

"Murphy couldn't have killed him, I saw him enter his tent early in the night." I said, walking up to the two of them. Slowly other people started to gather, and a bad feeling grew in the pit of my stomach.

"He threatened to kill him." Clarke said as her head whipped in my direction, making me mentally recoil before she turned her attention back to Murphy. "We all heard you. You hated Wells."

In all honesty, she wasn't wrong. Murphy did hate Wells. But as Murphy finally pointed out, "Plenty of people hated Wells. His father is the chancellor that got us all locked up."

"Yeah, but you're the only one of them who got into a knife fight with him." She pointed out, making me frown. Once again, she wasn't wrong.

"Yeah, I didn't kill him then, either." He clinging at straws for his defense, and I grew more nervous as the crowd around us grew. Pretty much the whole camp was now watching.

"Tried to kill Jasper, too." Octavia decided to bud in, pointing out yet another cringely true detail. I flinched as she spoke, and was near screaming as the crowd nodded in agreement.

"Oh come on. This is ridiculous. I don't have to answer to you. I don't have to answer to anyone." He spat, and at this point my nerves were in the crapper.

He was saying all the wrong things, and I blanked out for a moment as I tried to fumble for ideas as to what to say. Finally, Connor's voice shook me back to reality.

"I say we float him!" Connor yelled, rallying all the delinquents into agreement.

"I just said it couldn't have been him!" I yelled back, silencing the stirring crowd. They all stared at me blankly as I said, "He never left his tent. Only some little girl did."

The crowd remained silent until Connor spoke again.

"We all saw you two leave yesterday, and come back all smitten. I bet you were his accomplice in killing Wells! It's justice. Float them both!" Connor shouted, and at this point I was near fainting. Perhaps if I fainted, they would've just let me be.

"Revenge isn't justice!" Clarke said, but it wasn't heard as everyone started closing in, and roughly grabbed Murphy. Within seconds, he was gagged.

My screams went unheard as they started beating him up, and I tried to pry through the crowd and get to Murphy. From behind me, rough hands grabbed my hips. I wanted to throw up my breakfast as my head whipped around to see who was touching me.

For the record, only a small list of people are on my 'okay to touch me' list. And diggs was definitely not on it.

Diggs was yet another one of Bellamy's Army, and a close friend of Connor. Without saying a word Diggs smirked and pulled my hips in further to his body. My mind was near nuclear meltdown as I felt a bulge touch my bum. Diggs was genuinely getting a rise out of my squirming, and his smile grew bigger as he wrapped his arms further around me and lifted me up. I went to kick his knees, or really any part of him, when Murphy's shouted grabbed my attention. Murphy was now being kicked down a freaking hill.

Myles tossed a noose to Connor, and Connor didn't even wait for some of the other of Bellamy's twisted gang to lift Murphy off the ground. He just freaking wrapped it around his neck while he was on the ground and they used that to lift him up. Then, Connor sauntered over to where I was, and Diggs pretty much all but threw me at Connor. Connor turned me around so I was looking at Murphy, being careful of course to only grab me in inappropriate places. I was about to kick the daylights out of Connor, when he managed to put a knife at my throat and kept it close. I could feel the blade cutting into my skin slightly.

Within a few minutes, we had gone from a loud dispute, to Murphy with a noose around his neck, and Connor holding onto me, a knife at my own throat. My only hope was that Bellamy would end this madness.

But instead, Bellamy glared at Clarke as he made his way over to Murphy. He didn't even try to look at either of us as he kicked the crate out from Murphy's feet. I wished at that moment to have been hanging as well, or for my body to go numb to all feelings, so I wouldn't have had to feel Connor's hand on my waist, lifting the hem of my shirt up. I had already been manhandled enough, I didn't need to be manhandled while watching Murphy's life slowly draining from his face.

I heard a young girl crying, and for a moment I had thought it was me, until Connor loosened his grip and I could feel his body turn slightly away from mine.

"Stop it!" She screeched, and I turned my head slightly to see that little blonde girl from a few night earlier. Suddenly, the dots connected, and I didn't even need to hear what she said next. "Murphy didn't kill Wells! I did!"

I didn't take this distraction lightly, and finally all the things Murphy had shouted at me yesterday came back. I elbowed Connor in the ribs, bit his hand so he let go of the knife, grabbed the knife from him and swung my leg out behind me to kick him in a very unfortunate place.

Finn was also thinking on his feet, and he grabbed the machete someone near him was holding and slung it at the tree, cutting the knot and letting Murphy fall to the ground. I slid down, lifting Murphy's head up onto my legs and helping him take the noose and gag off. Bellamy tried to come closer, to help us, but instead I screamed and swung the knife around, glaring. He recoiled, and walked away to Clarke.

I didn't want Bellamy's help. I didn't want anyones. Because, just moments before, I was going to be the next person that Bellamy Blake let die.


	7. Chapter 7

**I mean, this chapter isn't long, but it isn't short either. I thought you'd prefer a smaller one out sooner than a bigger one later. I could be wrong.**

 **These next few chapters are all about Riley's friendships and her becoming badass. (Or, slightly unhinged, depending on how you look at it.)**

 **Thanks so much to tinseltown and apaperheart. You can all thank them for me posting so soon. Or, you can be proactive in your life and review too.**

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June had been inside the dropship for the whole ordeal, and came running over to me when she noticed Murphy and I on the ground. Murphy glared at her, lifting himself up with ease and storming off to the tent where Bellamy and Co. were located. Most likely to harass them, which was rightfully earned.

June practically had to lift me up off the ground by herself, and led me back into the dropship. Everyone avoided eye contact with me, but at the same time I could feel their eyes still lingering on me. By the time we reached the dropship, I could hear Murphy yelling for them to bring Charlotte out. Hearing the anger in his voice, I couldn't help but let out a muffled sob.

Murphy was pissed, and it didn't take a genius to know that he was going to do something stupid. What's worse, I didn't even blame him. I guess he wasn't the only one who was pissed. I could feel their hands on me still, pushing me around from one to the other, and hear Murphy's cries.

"I'm so sorry, Riley." June whispered, as she sat me down on a hammock someone had made. "Let me get water to clean that out." She added, and I hadn't noticed until that point that my neck had been bleeding. It wasn't the smallest cut, and it most likely had happened when I had pushed myself away from Connor. Regardless iit had left a huge trail of blood down my neck, and onto my shirt.

Time seemed to be functioning out of accord. One moment, June was near me, whispering apologizes, and the next moment she's cleaning up my throat. After blinking again, she suddenly appeared to be in the middle of the dropship, scolding Octavia. I didn't want to be in the dropship any longer, under their apologetic stares. Instead, I slipped out and quietly made my way to Murphy's tent. I couldn't hear chanting anymore, but I didn't look up to see what was happening. I didn't want to know.

Relief washed over me when I entered his tent. There was something soothing to me about being around his stuff. I laid in his bed, curling myself up in his sleeping bags, and finally letting myself cry. I cried for a long time before his scent being around me seemed to calm me down, and I fell asleep imagining him holding me, telling me how his day at school had gone. Just like how he did when we were kids, and I didn't want to go home to an angry father.

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I was shaken awake, and when opened my eyes I had expected to see Murphy. Instead, I was greeted by darkness and the faint outline of curly hair. It was Reed. Behind her, I could faintly make out Sterling's outline. Reed turned on the light next to me, which was a shity lantern with J.M. carved on the bottom. It didn't add much light, but it was better than nothing I suppose.

"What is it?" I asked, my voice cracking from dehydration after crying.

"I don't know how to tell you this." Reed said, her voice quivering, and behind her Sterling shifted slightly.

"Tell me what?" I asked, finally making out their faces better in the semi-darkness. Reed was near crying herself, and Sterling looked like he was in the most awkward situation of his life.

"They banished Murphy." Reed finally spat out, as her hand found mine underneath the sleeping bags.

I didn't even know how to respond. Banished Murphy? Okay, I knew he was kind of an asshole sometimes. I mean, pretty much all the time. And he did pee on Connor. But, he was then nearly hanged. Also, his ex-best friend whom he likes to mark with his own lips was being felt up a bit before her own near death. (I'm talking about myself, incase you didn't catch on.)

I wanted to punch Bellamy in the face. Hard. And when I finally decided to do just that, Reed moved out of the way silently. Sterling, on the other hand, grabbed my upper arm. Honestly, bad move on his part because I had already wanted to punch someone, and after this morning, I did not want anyone touching me.

"Let go of me Sterling. I'm five seconds away from losing my mind." I hissed, trying to keep my breathing even as I tried to yank my arm out of his grasp.

"Just take a moment to think before you do anything rash." He said, his grip slowing loosening on my arm. I hesitated, contemplating what he said. Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and considered my options.

Before I could do a mental list of my options however, someone came inside the tent. My eyes shot open, and I could feel my blood pressure rise at the sight of Bellamy. Just seeing Bellamy's face cause a replay of this mornings events in my mind.

"Are you going to banish me too, Chancellor?" I spat out, my hands forming into fists at my sides.

Bellamy frowned, and looked down for a moment. "No. I'm here to tell you that I'm going to make sure nothing bad happens to you." His eyes held mine, as if he was making a promise to me with them. I wanted to punch his eyes out.

"You mean like you did this morning?" Reed scoffed, jumping to my side. "You can't just hang someone and then banish them when they expect the same thing to happen to the real perpetrator." She grabbed my hand, forcing me to loosen it out of the fist I was making. "She doesn't need your protection." Reed stated flatly, a look of determination spreading over her face as she held my hand tighter.

"She has us." Monty's voice added, and I looked around the tent surprised. Slowly, near the collapsable chair, a tiny piece of tent moved. Monty's head popped into the tent as he slowly started crawling inside. Bellamy gave an extremely annoyed look as he rolled his eyes at Monty. Reed on the other hand cheered, and Sterling had to stifle his laughter.

By the time Monty made it to his feet, Bellamy had stormed out. Sterling gave us all a quick nod before he left, his eyes lingering a little longer than I would have liked on Reed. Reed seemed to not notice however, and instead sat down on the bed. I tried to hold my distaste for the situation in. Not to be selfish or anything, but I didn't want her touching Murphy's stuff.

"Does that mean we get his tent now?" Reed asked as she grabbed one of the sleeping bags and began inspecting it. She raised her brow at me as she lifted a corner of the bag up. Clear as day was J.M. written with some shoddy marker on the sleeping bag.

I know I probably shouldn't smile about the fact that he even felt the need to mark the sleeping bags, but I did. I then shrugged and sat down next to her. Monty sat down in the folding chair and we all held each other's gazes before laughing.

"Well, I'm not giving up this tent. This is all his shit." I remarked, looking around at the tent.

"That he stole from someone else." Monty added.

"Yeah well it has his initials on it now so it's his." Once again today I felt like I was grasping for straws while trying to defend Murphy.

"Do I even want to know what you two's relationship was?" Monty asked, giving me a skeptical glance.

I glared at him for a minute before I forced myself to look away. Breathing became hard again, and after several minutes I spoke up. "He was my childhood best friend."

"Jasper was my childhood best friend." Monty stated dryly. "And I don't go around kissing him."

I couldn't help but snort, and looked at Monty again before saying, "Then you are obviously doing it wrong." Monty glared for a moment before rolling his eyes.

"Did you sleep all day?" Reed asked, as if it suddenly clicked in her mind that she had just woken me up.

I rolled my eyes and Monty smiled sympathetically at me before his eyes made their way to Reed. Finally I admitted,"You try nearly dying, then tell me if the stress of it all isn't exhausting."

"You cried yourself to sleep, didn't you?" Monty asked, his eyes drifting back to me. I had to look away from both of them as I nodded, embarrassed.

I could've been there for him, maybe convinced him not to get himself banished. But instead, I did what I always had done. I sat around and let himself get in trouble. Just like I had when he ended up getting locked up.

"If it was me, I would've too. Emotions are so exhausting." Reed remarked, and yawned before resting her head on my shoulder. "I'm so excited for this bed. I don't care if we have to spoon it up bro style Rhy, I want a piece of this." Reed continued, grabbing one of the sleeping bags and bringing it up over her shoulders.

This morning, I had felt so completely alone. But I guess, all it takes is a near-death experience to make your friends remember you exist. I know Reed, although hiding it with her obsession over a new bed, deeply regretted going out for plants today. And I had a feeling she wouldn't be leaving me alone for a while. And with Murphy being banished, I wanted her around me as much as possible.


	8. Chapter 8

**NOTICE; I will now be updating only every three days. However, any review given on a chapter will bump that date up one day. (I.E. I'll post chapter 9 on Friday. If one person reviews, it'll be Thursday. Two, and its Wednesday. If three, then I'll post it as soon as I can that day.)**

 **Shout out to apaperheart. You can all thank her for me posting so soon.**

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Being around Reed had never completely mended the broken feeling I got when I'm away from Murphy, but it did help considerably more than other people. Monty had changed the topic away from the bed as quickly as he could, and brought us back to the plants Reed had picked up today with Sterling.

It was always amusing to watch how rudely Monty could spit Sterling's name out. It started out as sour distaste, and as Reed forced us all out of the tent and over to the fire to look at the plants, it grew into complete repulsion. I knew Monty's only problem with Sterling however was that Sterling got to spend the day hunting for plants with Reed. Monty spent the whole day trying to connect to speak with the ark, but apparently it didn't work out. He probably wished he had given up that morning and went with Reed.

We all sat down at the fire, dismissing June and Octavia from their firewatch duties. June seemed relieved, and gave me a sympathetic pat on the shoulder as she walked by, telling us that if anything happened, she wanted to be woken up instead of Bellamy. Octavia avoided eye contact with me, quickly matching June's stride and leaving without a word.

I don't think Octavia had ever expected her one comment to be fuel to a murderous fire this morning, and therefore I knew I shouldn't hold it against her. But I had decided that I had needed to hold it against her for at least the first 24 hours. Seemed fair to me considering I had nearly died.

Reed had picked out some really great plants, at least according to Monty. She managed to find Lavender, Patchouli, Sandalwood, and Wolfsbane. (He didn't actually think the last one was good. He almost acted like he was going to yell at her, but instead made her go wash her hands. I told him I'd dispose of it, but instead I grabbed Reed's gloves and hid it in my tent. You may never know when you will need an extremely poisonous plant.)

Once everyone's hands were clean, and the plant was 'disposed of', we settled back at the fire and Monty started teaching us what we could use each plant for, and how to do so. To be honest, I was quite impressed with Monty's knowledge. Not as much as Reed was, though. Reed seemed to be in a constant state of nearly jumping in joy the whole time he spoke. Not that I blame her though, I'm sure I've acted similar around different people. We spent hours crushing Lavender and talking about what we had succeeded to do on earth that would've never happened on the ark.

We started off with tame accomplishments like watching the sunrise, and feeling a river under our feet. Slowly, as it grew closer to daytime, the accomplishments got slightly more impressive. I made out with Murphy, Reed had forced Sterling to give her a piggy-back ride, and Monty had been an ace wingman for Jasper.

After we all fell into a comfortable silence, I lifted my head up and looked at the stars. It was nearing dawn, but the sky was still mostly dark. I had started wondering about my life. I wondered what it would've been like if I had been braver. I had known why I took the wolfsbane from the very start. I didn't want to be weak anymore, and since the only muscle around me got himself banished, (refer to Murphy) I had to find some way to defend myself. And considering I wasn't going to be able to build enough muscle fast enough, I knew I would have to go another route.

Connor had only stopped harassing Reed after Murphy stepped in. Reed didn't even have speed on her side. She had tried running on the treadmill one day on the ark, but after a few minutes she found herself out of breath and decided to go read some books instead. Monty wasn't enough, especially considering his lack of fighting skills. And I wasn't going to let anyone mess with Reed or myself.

It was peaceful, to look up at the stars. They reminded me of the ark however, so it wasn't nearly as peaceful as it could've been. From north came a bright star, and it started making its way towards the south. Excited, I had pointed it out to Monty.

Monty was such a freaking downer. He started shouting, and ran into the dropship and found June and Octavia. June smiled, and ran into Bellamy's tent to alert him.

Screams erupted from Bellamy's tent. A mere few seconds after having ran into the tent, June ran out with a disgusted look on her face.

"Do I even want to know what you saw?" Octavia asked June, and June shook her head before the two of them went off to wake up the rest of camp.

At this point it's safe to say I was clueless. Well, maybe not clueless. Just hopeful it wasn't what I had thought it was. Unfortunately, Monty decided to disappoint me by explaining that the falling star was most likely from the ark.

Bellamy came out of his tent with two women, which explained June's disgust. I wanted to be grossed out as well, but everyone in the group seemed happy with their choices, so Reed and I exchanged glances with each other and I shrugged. She shrugged back, and then handed me more Sandalwood to chop up. Ironically enough, I was using one of Murphy's knives to do so.

Holding any of Murphy's possessions felt like I was faintly holding his hand. I imagined the warmth of the knife not being from myself, but being from Murphy having just held it. Cheesy, right?

I wanted to close my eyes and pretend I was back in that meadow, laughing and learning how to defend myself. Perhaps if I had known what would happen a day later, I would've taken the training more seriously.

LINE BREAK

Reed, Monty, Jasper, and I got a nice break once the sun came up. Everyone left to find the ship that had fallen. Octavia, June, and Bellamy all disappeared earlier than the rest. I honestly never cared enough to know what was going on with that trio. They all seemed to have some sort of drama surrounding Bellamy's choices.

Not to say there wasn't always drama in my circle for what Murphy did. But, clearly Bellamy had felt the need to correct that. I wasn't quite sure if I could ever forgive him for that. Or even look at him straight in the face.

Everyone came back too early in my opinion, and this time we were joined by a girl named Raven. Raven didn't really get introduced to us, and instead stole Monty and Jasper away from us to help her build rockets to communicate with the ark.

I was starting to feel goddamn helpless. Not saying I would've been helpful at building rockets, because in all honesty they had made the right choice there. But it would've been nice to be wanted.

I looked up at the delinquents as they continued working on the rockets, and Diggs' eyes met mine. Suddenly, I no longer wanted to be wanted. Actually, I now had wanted to dig myself a grave. Diggs smirked at me, obviously he enjoyed the cop-a-feel he took yesterday. I didn't.

Feeling Diggs hands on me yesterday; grabbing my waist and my bum in too close to an area of his body that was getting way too hard at the idea of murdering Murphy, and probably gang banging me made me want to vomit.

Bellamy watched as Diggs started slowly closing in on Reed and myself, and I could tell he was waiting for me to ask for his help. That is, until someone distracted him and he went off to help. Quickly, I excused myself from the fire, telling Reed I needed to get water. She nodded, her eyes never leaving her work. She hadn't even noticed the sack of water next to me was still full.

I didn't have time, and I ran into my tent. And by my tent, I mean Murphy's. Throwing the gloves on, I grabbed the wolfsbane, rolling the petals up between my hands. I opened the water sack, and let some of the petals fall in. I quickly closed it back up, and shook it around.

I didn't know enough about wolfsbane, I just knew that it could make Diggs feel worse than how I was feeling. Sure, even more could definitely kill him, and I knew someday that could be a possibility.

As I opened the sack and grabbed the very same pliers Murphy had used to take off my wristband, I quickly removed the petals. I'm sure realistically the water should've turned colors slightly, but the water we were drinking already wasn't the cleanest.

As I capped the sack and shook it up again, I realized that being around criminals was turning me into someone just as bad as them. That was until Murphy's horror-stricken face seared itself back into my mind, and his muffled screams echoed through my brain as he dangled from the noose. Then, I realized I no longer cared if I was becoming bad.


	9. Chapter 9

**It's about 40 minutes away from Wednesday, and I figured it was close enough.**  
 **Apaperheart and Keliza153 both reviewed, bringing the date of this from Friday to Wednesday.**  
 **The next chapter will be out on Sunday. Reviews will still bump that day up one day per each review. **

* * *

When I finally pushed up the courage, I walked out of the tent. It honestly didn't take long to work up the courage. All I had to do was think about yesterday, and suddenly I was wanting to add more wolfsbane in. Maybe just shove some down his throat.

It was nearing nighttime, and I could see the sun beginning to set. I wanted to stand and look at the beautiful colors forever. Just me and my imagination. I let myself sink into a moment in my mind, where Murphy was next to me. That was until I heard Diggs' cackling from nearby.

Diggs sauntering up to me had reminded me of the cold hard truth. Murphy wasn't there, and I was going to need to be strong and take care of myself. I slowly exhaled, my eyes trained on Diggs as he finally stopped a few feet away from me. Suddenly flashes of yesterday went through my mind, only solidifying my choice.

"Hey there, how's the rocket building going?" I asked, and the sweetness in my voice made me want to vomit. Not to say I hadn't already wanted to vomit, but that's not the point.

"It's going good. Makes a pretty good workout." He casually replied, not even bothering to apologize about yesterday.

I wasn't expecting a huge heartfelt apology, but a simple 'my bad' would have at least made me feel bad about my choices. Instead, he continued talking about himself and winking suggestively at me. I handed him the water sack so he could hydrate 'after all that hard effort.'

He smirked, and leaned in way too close for my liking as he told me once the rockets were done, they were going to try to find Octavia and June. And once they found them, he was coming back and finding me. I could feel the vomit rising in my throat as I nodded, and he winked once more before making his way back to Bellamy and the rockets.

Without further ado, I ran off and threw up behind a tree. The only comfort I took from it was that in a few hours, he would be throwing up too.

Reed had vaguely noticed the encounter I shared with Diggs, and once I told her what he said, (being careful to not mention I poisoned him) she decided that we definitely would be spooning it up bro style, and that Monty should be on fire watch. Monty was fine with this, considering he knew he wouldn't sleep while Jasper was off looking for Octavia.

I had only refrained from telling her about the poison because I didn't want it wearing on her conscious. She was headstrong, and although I was almost positive she'd support me, I didn't want to risk it.

I didn't even enjoy the rockets going off, I was so nervous. I could feel Diggs watching me from across camp, which was too much for my stomach. I decided to avoid dinner that night, and instead let Reed eat my share.

* * *

For the record, we didn't really spoon it up. Reed had her back against mine, and I spent the night twirling Murphy's knife in my hand while she nearly shoved me off of the bed every few hours. I was too nervous to sleep, which seemed to be the exact opposite of how Reed felt as she nearly claimed the whole bed. The bed smelled like Murphy, and was the only thing I could take comfort in until morning when we left the tent.

Midday the troops finally set back into camp. Jasper confronted us, explaining how they found Octavia. June was still missing, and instead they had captured a grounder.

The list of dead was outstanding. Mbege died, which was a little disappointing. I definitely preferred him over most of Bellamy's other cronies. Roma, a girl whom enjoyed spending her nights warming Bellamy's bed, also had died. Bellamy didn't seem too shaken up by it, which I found a little harsh.

Diggs also died. When I casually asked how, Jasper told me Diggs had been stumbling and wasn't watching where he was. Something had gotten Diggs sick, and he landed himself in a grounder trap, dead.

That wasn't the outcome I had been expecting, but after how he talked to me the night before, I wasn't regretful for poisoning him. He was in a position of power, being in Bellamy's troop. There was no way in hell they would've sided with me if I had tried to defend myself.

* * *

The next few days got a little weird. Everyone was too absorbed with the grounder, so I was in the clear to go out and explore with Reed and Sterling. Radio connection was gained with the ark, and at one point Finn nearly died. I spent as much time away from camp, trying to ignore Bellamy and Co. It was hard, but worth it. Raven was the only one I could stand out of all of them most days, and Reed had started wanting her to be apart of our group. Become the three R's instead of two.

June seemed to have came back at an impeccable time, and had tried to get the grounder released. Apparently, a grounder had saved her just like Octavia had claimed this grounder had done for her.

Bellamy was pissed and one day Reed, Sterling, and I came back to find the camp hopped up on nuts. Monty had eaten a freaking pinecone, and Jasper was stark convinced a stick would protect him from grounders. Raven and Finn had spent most of the day reeling everyone in, trying to make sure no one killed each other or themselves.

The grounder had 'escaped' at some point, and June had started sneaking out. So did Octavia, actually. Bellamy was still pissed, but seemed satisfied for the time being with the fact they had found guns.

This didn't make me feel better, however. Arming juvenile delinquents sounded like a horrible idea to me, but as usual, no one asked me.

At night, Murphy haunted my dreams. I relived him being nearly hanged every night. It got to a point where I couldn't even look anywhere near Bellamy, let alone Connor and Myles. Bellamy would try to bring up a conversation, to ask if I wanted to watch the fire at night, and I had to look away the whole time.

I was glad Reed was enjoying the bed, and seemed to be sleeping contently. I on the other hand, seemed to be getting less and less sleep as the days continued to roll on.

To make matters worse, June, Octavia, and even Finn were all pro-grounder. They were all for the people who had slashed me up and left me tied to a tree to die. If Murphy wasn't in my dreams at night, then the grounders were. Sometimes I'd be even more lucky and have both dreams in one night, which really solidified my idea of never sleeping again.

Unity day came and went, with a stark refusal to drink coming from me. The last thing I needed was my guard down. Especially considering how loose everyone seemed to get drinking, I didn't want to risk it.

Reed on the other hand got well drunk, and ended up making out with Monty. I expected as much, to be honest. It was going to happen sooner or later. They were both smart, funny, and kind. Sterling was surprised, but he seemed to recover.

A day later, Jasper found himself in a better tent thanks to some heroic effort on a bridge. Or something, honestly I didn't care enough. All I knew was that June was pissed, and nobody had seen her since whatever the bridge event was.

Octavia continued to sneak out, and everyone seemed to be coming a bit undone. Clarke was depressed because the exodus ship crashed, and her mother was supposedly on board. To make matter worse, all communications with the ark had been cut since Unity day. This seemed to bug a lot of the others, but considering I had no one on the ark, it didn't really matter to me.

We went off looking for plants, and ended up being out exploring till dusk. This time, it was Reed, Monty and myself. I was becoming a third wheel in the worst sense. No one wants to see people get that giddy over plants. And by no one, I mean myself. I was happy to be heading back to the dropship, because by the end of the day I didn't know what was worse, being a third wheel or having to deal with Bellamy and Co.

When we got to camp, Bellamy's group was around the fire. Jasper was telling the story of how he saved the day or something. Honestly, I stopped listening to him the moment other people started fangirling. Harper was listening intently, eating his every word. Octavia was farther away, scoffing. Monty went to go talk to her, because in Monty's eyes he didn't care. He was happy they got a bigger tent, and that Jasper was feeling better.

Reed and I instead went to Murphy's tent, and started unpacking the plants. We had dedicated a corner to our plants, and Reed put the ones we picked away and grabbed a few for us to work on that night.

Right when I exited the tent, I noticed the camp was in a disarray. Something or someone had tripped the wire, and set off an alarm.

Suddenly, Connor (eck) and Derek (meh) were shooting into the night. Derek claimed he got it, and they both left to investigate. Octavia trailed after them, probably worried about her grounder boyfriend. Although, I'm pretty sure someone as buff and smart as her grounder boyfriend wouldn't have trip over a wire. I ignored the commotion, instead sitting down at the newly abandoned fire and waiting for Reed.

That's when I saw him, and I think my heart stopped. It was Murphy. And by the looks of it, they were going to turn him over to Bellamy.


	10. Chapter 10

Heyo! Murphy's back. I just finished writing season one, and let me tell you. I have ideas for the next season, but we'll see. It'll be posted as a different story whenever we get to that point. Don't worry about it, though.

The next chapter will be out in 3 days, so on Monday night. Every review brings that day up by one day.

Keliza153 and apaperheart are the reason why this chapter is out earlier than planned. Plan your thank you notes accordingly.

* * *

I think the speed of my running finally surprised everyone. One moment I'm minding my own business by the fire, and the next moment I'm right next to Murphy, pushing Connor out of the way and letting Murphy lean against me as Derek and I helped him walk. Octavia was giving the stink eye to Connor, and seemed more at ease now that I was over there.

I didn't want to bring Murphy anywhere near the dropship, but considering I wasn't strong enough to hold him by myself, I let Derek lead us. For the most part, Derek was okay. He didn't help Murphy when he was getting killed, but he didn't really hurt him either.

Murphy looked like he had been dragged to hell and back. His face was bloody, bruised, and cut all over. It was his turn to get blood all over my clothes, and I was hesitant to even let him down on the dropship floor. He pushed himself in a corner, and I kneeled down in front of him.

I wasn't even sure he could tell it was me, he seemed so scared of everyone. I sighed, and was about to stand up as Reed made her way over, when his hand shot out and grabbed mine. His nails had been pried off, which caused my stomach and heart great unease. For the record, I can't deal with the idea nails or teeth being pulled.

He had been tortured far worse than I ever had been by the grounders.

"Reed, get water and a cloth." I whispered to her as she kneeled down beside me. I couldn't even take my eyes off of Murphy, I almost was worried that if I did, he would disappear. I squeezed his hand, and he squeezed mine back.

Derek and Connor left to get Bellamy and Clarke. Reed returned before any of them had, and I quickly started to try to clean him off, still holding his hand. Dirt and sand was in just about every cut he had. He closed his eyes as I took the cloth to his face, both of us wincing.

"I'm so sorry." I whispered, mainly apologizing for the pain I was bringing by cleaning out his wounds. But in all honesty, I wanted to apologize for anything I had ever done. I just wanted him to be okay again, to smile again. Hell, I'd would've even had taken a smirk at that point.

"Everyone but Connor and Derek out, now!" Bellamy yelled, and the crowd I hadn't noticed dispersed. I didn't even bother moving. Bellamy would've needed to carry me out if he wanted me gone. Reed squeezed my shoulder before leaving herself. I was glad Reed trusted me to take care of the situation myself. Whether or not that trust was rightfully placed was another story.

"He claims he was with the grounders." Derek stated, and I could feel my anger rising. Derek was starting to get on my bad side. If only he knew what I had done to Diggs when he got on my wrong side.

"We caught him trying to sneak back into camp." Connor said, and finally I whipped my head to look at them. Connor had been so lucky till this point to have stayed away from me since that day, but at that point he was about five minutes away from having wilting wolfsbane shoved down his throat. Or up his ass. Honesty, any hole would've worked.

"I wasn't sneaking." Murphy said, his voice cracking. I made a mental note to get him water to drink next. "I was running away from grounders." Murphy's grip on my hand tightened, and I squeezed even tighter to match him.

"Anyone see grounders?" Bellamy asked.

"Don't you fucking dare go there with me, Bellamy." I nearly screamed, and I wanted to look at Bellamy, to glare at him, but I still couldn't manage it. "His nails are torn off, he has the same slashes I had. He was tortured. Leave us alone."

"Why is it you still can't look at me, then?" Bellamy asked as he kneeled down beside me. I could feel his body heat, he was so close. Too close. Bad move, considering he was not on my 'allowed to touch me' list.

"Because, whenever I look at you," I whispered, finally letting myself look at Bellamy. "I see you kicking the crate out from under Murphy. And it makes me want to do the same to you." I could feel my eyes tear up. Bellamy's jaw dropped in awe, and he quickly stood up and stepped away from us.

By the time Bellamy stepped away, Clarke and Finn came into the dropship. They wasted no time going to the other side of the dropship and whispering in hushed tones to each other.

Ignoring them, I went back to cleaning off Murphy's face. He leaned into my touch every so often, bringing me closer to tears. What really did it for me however was what I found around his neck. Rubbing his neck, I continued to clean him off, lifting his shirt slightly to get the cuts on his collarbones.

Around his neck was a silver chain, and on that chain was my mother's ring. I hadn't realized until that point that he had kept it. I had assumed he trashed it. But instead, he kept it, and had been wearing it close to his heart. Or you know, where ever he could. My mom had small hands.

Murphy chuckled softly, a smile only barely touching his face for a moment as he said, "If you wanted to see me naked Rhy, you could've just asked."

The mother fucker was on death's door and was still making jokes. I almost cried, and carefully let his shirt rest back on his chest.

"Let's save the sexual innuendos until you can at least stand on your own, eh?" I whispered, smiling at him as I felt a tear fall down my cheek.

I was getting too damn emotional, and if it wasn't for the fact that I was worried they would kill him if I had moved, I probably would've retreated by now.

"Deal." Murphy whispered back, giving my hand one more tight squeeze before letting go.

I rang out the dirty rag in the bowl of water, and continued cleaning him as everyone conversed around me. Bellamy and Co. decided they would let Murphy heal, and find out what he knew about the grounders. Then, they would kick him out. In that moment, I had decided that if they kicked him out one more time, I would be going with him.

* * *

Murphy fell asleep with his head on my lap, with me leaning against the wall of the dropship. I'm not going to lie, the boy needed to clean his hair. But it was Murphy's hair, so I ran my hands through it anyways. (To the best of my ability, at least.) I somehow managed to doze off for a few hours, only to be woken by my own screaming.

When I woke up, Murphy was off of my lap and shaking me, trying to wake me. Worry was etched in his features until I blinked a few times and my hands flew to his shoulders.

"You were screaming in your sleep." Murphy said, letting his hands go from my shoulders to my cheeks. Which I assumed were probably quite flush. "Do you get nightmares about-?" He couldn't even finish his own sentence. He didn't need to though, and I nodded, wishing I could look away. He nodded, "Me too."

The moment was broken by him suddenly coughing. He let me go but I kept ahold of his shoulders, trying to steady him and lay him back on my lap. His head was inches away from my lap when he lifted it back up, and coughed up blood onto my right knee. Exactly what my pants had needed really, more blood.

As if like clockwork, Clarke and Bellamy stormed into the dropship. I didn't want them anywhere near either of us, and I could tell by the way Murphy's body tensed that he felt the same. He placed one hand on the ground and the other on my thigh.

"How did you escape the grounders?" Clarke asked, kneeling down in front of us. There was red smudged on her face, as if she had been crying red.

"Are you sick too?" I asked as Murphy let out another string of coughs, this time letting blood fall onto the floor right next to my knee. How chivalrous.

"They had forgotten to lock my cage." Murphy began, and when he said cage I couldn't help but lean in closer to him. He leaned back into me, his warmth enveloping me. "I got out as soon as possible and didn't stop running."

"Biological warfare. Riley, not as if you were going to move anyways," Clarke began as she stood up and took a step away from us, "But you're going to need to stay in the dropship. We'll quarantine the ones exposed." She quickly turned away from us and started demanding Bellamy to leave.

A few hours later, and many more bloody coughs, I found myself in a similar spot. I had moved only slightly, so Murphy could lay down and cough blood onto the floor. A blanket was found for him, and I stayed sat next to him wiping the blood off of his face every once in awhile, sometimes also cleaning the sweat away. Murphy was near unconsciousness, and for the most part was sleeping.

"I don't think I can do that again, Murphy." I whispered to Murphy as I brushed the fallen hair away from his face. "At first I thought maybe, I'd be okay. I was handling my problems. But I can't sleep anymore. I used to love sleeping." Murphy shifted in his sleep slightly, making me slightly jealous of his peaceful state.

"But now, I can't eat. All I do is lay in bed, your bed by the way, thanks. Anyways, all I do is lay in bed with a knife- Your knife too, thanks. All I do is lay there with that knife, running my fingers over J.M., and listen to the sounds of the night, waiting for one of the noises to be Connor, or Myles, or any of them." I could feel myself getting ready to cry, which in all honesty was pissing me off. I had never cried this much before, ever. "You should've seen me those first fews days, though. I was one hell of a firecracker."

As expected, Murphy didn't reply. I hadn't expected him to. But it had felt good to finally say what I had been feeling.

I had kept Murphy hydrated the whole day, and by the end of the day he was showing improvement. I however, was not.

The virus, however short lived, spread quickly and was deadly for some. Derek had died earlier that morning, and by nightfall, I felt like I would be next. Perhaps that's why I had felt so emotional that day. I mean, probably not but I could at least pretend that's the reason I had been near crying.

Murphy had started getting better, and went from being the needy, to being the caretaker. He went around the whole dropship helping people as they coughed up blood. He even helped Connor, which was surprising. I could feel myself getting sicker and sicker, and I had been starting to feel like how I did when I was tied up to a tree.

Murphy kept me in his eyesight the whole time, as far as I could tell. Anytime I needed anything, he was right by my side.

Come nightfall however, I was starting to feel slightly better. For the first time in what seemed like years, I slept and didn't have a nightmare. It surprised me, considering the proximity of Connor in the dropship. Maybe I was getting over my issues. Probably not, but a girl can dream.

The only reason I had woken up that night was to go to the bathroom. When my eyes had opened, I felt content with everyone being asleep around me. I started to sit up slowly when I noticed Murphy over by Connor.

At first, I hadn't thought anything of it. Murphy was holding a rag, and I had assumed he was going to help Connor. Except when Murphy leaned down, Connor wasn't awake. That is until Murphy placed the wet rag over Connor's mouth and nose and held it there. I watched in silence as Murphy slowly suffocated Connor.


	11. Chapter 11

**We only have like, one chapter left in Season One! It's horrifying. I'll be honest, I'm not as far into Season Two's writing as I'd like to be. I'm also going to try to make Season Two last, because although I'm pretty on track for Season Three, who knows what curve balls they will throw. During next chapter I'll give the run-down for Season Two.**  
 **The next chapter will be out Tuesday night. For every review, it will bring that day up.**

**You can thank redpanda31 and apaperheart for reviewing, bringing the date up two days.**

* * *

I felt no remorse, no need to intervene. Instead, I just watched as Murphy killed Connor. To make matters worse, I felt good about him doing it. Part of me was ecstatic I wouldn't have to creep around camp, or lie in bed sleeplessly anymore.

Eventually Connor's eyes shut, and Murphy quietly stood up. He turned around, quickly glancing around the dropship to make sure no one had seen. His eyes landed on mine, and grew in surprise. I could see a hint of fear in his eyes, and without saying a word he walked quietly out of the dropship.

I had to follow. And by 'I had to' I mean, I felt emotionally constricted to the point where all my mind could focus on was following Murphy.

My body wasn't on my side however, and getting up felt like I was spinning around in a circle. Suddenly, I felt the urge to vomit and simultaneously faint. It took me what felt like hours to quietly make my way out of the dropship, having to take extra care not to step on anyone.

The night air sent shivers through me, and I immediately regretted leaving the warm, albeit stuffy dropship. Lucky for me, Murphy hadn't gone far. He actually was just 10 feet away from the door, leaning on the dropship's hull.

Murphy looked more disgruntled than he had since he had gotten back to camp. Which is saying something, considering what physical shape he was brought in with. He probably could tell I was in no condition to be chasing him around(but I was going to if he decided to leave) and took pity on me. He made his way over to me, his eyes only leaving mine when he examined my clothing.

If there had been a competition for the most blood on anyone's clothing, Murphy and I would be tied for first place. My eyes left his and I looked down at the ground.

Once Murphy was near inches away from my body did he stop moving. His feet touched mine, and I could feel his breath caress my face as he finally said, "You weren't supposed to see that, you know."

There were so many questions I could've asked, or should've. But instead, the only question that seemed to have mattered at that moment to me was,"Why did you kill him first?"

Murphy exhaled sharply, and he brought a hand up to my chin, forcing me to look up at him. I could see so much anger in his eyes. The same anger I felt inside me was inside him too.

"Do I need to list them all?" Murphy mumbled, his eyes flickering to my lips for a moment before he looked back into my eyes, "For starters, he put the noose around my head. Hell, he started the riot to kill me. He crossed so many lines that day, but the one that really threw me off the deep end Rhy, was when he had the courage to touch you."

My heart fluttered, and the dizzy feeling I had grew. Which was really unfortunate because I was already way too dizzy.

"I…" I tried to say anything, but for some reasons words got trapped in my throat.

"I don't expect you to be okay with what I did, or even understand-" Murphy started, sadness touching his face.

"I poisoned Diggs." It came out louder than I had intended it to, and Murphy looked at me in shock.

"I had only wanted him to feel as sick as I did whenever I saw him. He got off on touching me and seeing you get hanged, and it kept replaying in my mind. And then he left, and being sick while under a grounder attack was what killed him." My voice had toned down, and I continued watching Murphy's face for any sign of fear or worry.

"I thought there was something wrong with me when I found out he died and I was glad. Maybe there is-" I continued blabbering until Murphy forced his lips on mine. Which, I'm not going to lie, it a very effective way to shut me up.

The kiss ended before I even had time to respond. Murphy kept his head close to mine, his lips only inches away and his forehead resting against mine as he said, "That bastard deserved far worse than that, Rhy."

At that moment, I had realized that although there may have been something wrong with me, the same thing was wrong with Murphy too. And something about that gave me more strength than I would have even imagined.

* * *

The tribe had spoken. And by 'tribe', I mean Clarke and Bellamy. They decided that because Murphy had behaved so well while everyone was sick, that he deserved a second chance. They didn't know what I knew though.

Murphy had played nice with everyone including Connor, and then later that night while everyone was sleeping he had suffocated Connor. Instead of freaking out like a normal person who witnessed a murder, I had felt better when Connor died. As far as I was concerned, Connor had deserved it. I don't even want to know what Connor would've done with me if Charlotte hadn't admitted she had killed Wells. Lead the riot to gang bang me, probably.

Reed was disappointed when I gave Murphy his tent back, and although Murphy had offered with a smirk on his face to share it with me, I had turned it down.

Regardless of being given a second chance, Murphy had remained for the most part an asshole. An asshole who wasn't in charge of anything but himself, and who thoroughly believed they were in charge of me. For some reason, Murphy loved getting a reaction out of me. It didn't seem to matter to him what kind of reaction it was, either.

Every once in awhile I would see that cute kid who held my hand and kept my mother's ring around his neck inside of Murphy. Then he would cover it up, and start driving me insane. I could tell he was under a lot of stress. Being around this many people who don't like, or trust you can drain anyone. He was forced to work in the smokehouse, curing meats all day.

He always left the smokehouse at night drenched in sweat, looking even more exhausted than he had the day before.

With Connor dead, Myles seemed to becoming more prevalent around camp. Almost as if Connor's death increased his ranking in Bellamy's troops. For all I knew, it might have. Every once in awhile Myles would come up to me as I sat by the fire and try to start up a conversation about what plant I was working on.

As if Murphy had some internal man-radar on me however, Murphy would come out of the smokehouse and sit down next to me for a moment as he 'took a water break'. He was never subtle, either.

At first, his leg was simply pressed again mine, and he gave Myles disgruntled looks until Myles left. As the days grew, so did Myles' tolerance for Murphy's territory issues, and thus Murphy's grasp over me. By the end of the week Murphy was forcing me on his lap whenever Myles was around.

It would've been sweet if it wasn't for the fact that I was normally trying to cut up some plant and therefore being forcibly moved was incredibly inconvenient. Finally, one day when Myles left Murphy finally felt the need to speak to me instead of simply grunting and leaving as well.

"I need to take care of him." Murphy whispered into my ear, his grip on my hips tightening. His touch sent goose bumps up my spine, and I had to remind myself to calm down.

At this point, I was about as tired as Murphy looked. I was still having nightmares, and although they were less in frequency, they still were disrupting my sleep. Not to mention being back on the dropship's floor wasn't doing my back any favors, either.

"There is wolfsbane under your bed." I whispered back, my eyes staying trained on the Juniper berries I was squishing with the flat side of Murphy's knife and a cutting board made from a piece of wood.

Murphy exhaled and chuckled in my ear, his breath warming my neck and giving me a thrilling shiver. "Rhy, If you're talking about that dried up weed under my bed, then I'm afraid to tell you it won't be of much good anymore. I threw it out."

"Don't Rhy me, jerk face." I said, growing slightly annoyed that he felt like he could call me darling after a week of only talking to me when other men were around, or whenever he felt like it. "You could always suffocate him in his sleep, that seemed to work the first time."

Without any warning, Murphy pulled my hair to one side and quickly kissed my neck. In surprise, I jumped slightly, nearly cutting myself with the knife. I whipped my head around to him, staring into his eyes, confused. He smiled, letting go of my hips.

"You shouldn't give me such good ideas, Rhy." He said, and his hands moved back to my hips only to nudge me to get off of him.

If you think about it, it was quite rude of him. Merely minutes before that he had literally dragged me on top of him. I got up slightly and sat myself back down on the log, and he stood up. He shot me a quick wink and started heading back to the smokehouse.

"Hey jerk-face!." I yelled as he walked away, and he looked back at me with one brow raised. "Try not to get yourself thrown out again." I remarked, and he laughed and shrugged for a moment before continuing back to the smokehouse.

* * *

I always had the option to sleep in any day I watched the fire longer into the night, and after Murphy had returned to camp, I had started actually doing such. It was quieter on the top floor of the dropship than outside, and the sun never came through to wake me up.

Normally, when I woke up it was quiet on the dropship. Everyone was outside, doing their jobs. However, that day it seemed everyone was inside the dropship. When I went downstairs to investigate, I noticed everyone grabbing spears and other weapons.

"What's going on?" I asked, but no one stopped to tell me. I huffed and looked around, and I noticed Murphy making his way to me.

"You have impeccable sleeping skills, Rhy." Murphy said as he came up to me and leaned on the ladder next to me.

"I didn't sleep for weeks, so I'm making up for lost time." It wasn't necessarily a lie. I was making up for lost time, but I always had been able to sleep through huge events.

"Del kept feeding the fire in the smokehouse. It caught fire, with most of our food inside." Murphy explained, shrugging. His facial expressions turned sour at the mention of Del, and I had a feeling he probably tried to fight Del.

"So everyone is going hunting?" I asked, watching as everyone started to leave the dropship. Oddly enough, Myles left with Finn and Clarke. Better them than me, I suppose.

"Yeah. I'm not." Murphy mumbled, glaring at Bellamy. "I don't think they trust me with a spear yet."

"Their loss, then." I said, and Murphy smiled for a moment before his expression turned back to distaste as he looked at the others.

* * *

It was interesting, spending some of day with Reed and Murphy together. They hadn't really interacted until this point, and I started to see why immediately.

Reed kept trying to talk to me, and whenever my attention was put on her, Murphy would start something. I swear it was like my two best friends had turned into children and started playing tug a war, with me as the rope.

Around lunch, Monty noticed my dilemma and asked Reed if she wanted to help him with trying to connect back with the ark. She had just taught us how to debone the fish that Harper's team had brought back, and she was thankful to have an excuse to not be fist-deep in fish guts.

No matter how gross it was to be cutting up the fish, it was nice to be with Murphy. Even our silences were calming, and he stood so close to me our arms brushed, sending sparks through me. Which doesn't sound pleasant, but totally is.

I told him about what I had done while he had been gone. It wasn't a very exciting story, but he seemed to enjoy me speaking. He smiled down at the fish whenever I laughed, and it made me feel all warm inside.

He told me about how he survived outside of camp. He killed and cooked his own food, not sleeping in one place longer than one night. He hadn't really slept though, and I could tell by the morose look on his face when he spoke about it. He had been plagued by nightmares, too.

Nightfall came faster than it had all week. It was probably because I had been so absorbed in our conversations, as opposed to watching the smokehouse from afar and tending to a fire. When it was finally dark and Clarke and Co. wasn't back, Bellamy freaked out. He yelled at everyone (such as poor Sterling) who was on watch duty, telling them they couldn't sleep until Clarke came back.

I was starting to get really tired of Bellamy's voice. Every time he bellowed out another command, I unintentionally cringed.

Murphy seemed to take notice, and he grabbed my hand that was about to go all the way through a fish. His fingers intertwined with mine, and I looked up at him. His face told me all that I had needed to know; that he felt the same about Bellamy, and that we were in this together. I squeezed his hand, and as always he squeezed mine back.


	12. Chapter 12

**IMPORTANT : Season Two will be put up as another story entirely. The working name for it is Empire of Our Own - Rule the World**

 **It will take me at least a week for the first chapter of Season Two to be put up. I like to be ahead of my postings by two chapters, and I'm not now. I also want to make season two last longer. So I'm planning on making longer chapters, and go into more depth. Will that mean it's good? I don't know, we will all find out.**

 **Thanks so much to the amazing reviews. Apaperheart brought the posting date up by one. You were all amazing, and I hope you guys join me for season two.**

* * *

When morning broke, Raven and Octavia left to try to find Clarke and Co. I had spent the night watching the fire, and from the looks of the disarray around camp, I wasn't going to get any relief anytime soon. Murphy had stayed with me all night, our legs pressed together on the log as we shared stories about our prison adventures while on the ark.

I told him about the cards Reed and I had made. He told me he actually kind of missed Mbege, because they both had the same initials and Mbege and him would hang out almost every day. (I don't actually think he missed Mbege because they had the same initials, but I wasn't going to call him on that.)

Bellamy was derailing even more as the day went by, and had yelled at Sterling again when the poor kid fell asleep. I didn't blame Sterling, I had found my head on Murphy's shoulder a few times after breakfast. Disgruntled, Bellamy and Monty left to search for Clark and Co. as well.

Around midday Bellamy and Co. came back with Myles. Murphy and I had shared a disgusted glance at each other. Out of the three people in that group, Myles was literally the last one we wanted to come back alive.

To make matters worse, Monty had disappeared. Reed was near hysterics, and Bellamy had instructed her to go to bed. Murphy told her she could sleep in his bed, because from the looks of it he doubted he was ever going to be going back to bed.

Finally, after midday, I was told by Bellamy I could go to sleep. Murphy was allowed as well, but all Murphy did was smile and shake his head. He didn't want to bother Reed, and for that I was even more thankful.

* * *

By the time I got up the stairs in the dropship and into my bed, I had fallen asleep right when my head hit the shitty pillow. I was thankful for my ability to sleep through anything, considering people kept coming up and down the stairs. That was, until I heard a gunshot. The first gunshot didn't wake me up. If anything it was a minor inconvenience, but nothing too alarming. After the second gunshot, I was starting wake. By the time there was a spew of gunshots, I was wide awake and very alarmed.

The gunshots had come from the lower level of the dropship, and I was hesitant at first to investigate. Then I heard Murphy yelling something indecipherable, and I hardly thought twice before yanking open the hatch and nearly jumping down.

What I had walked in on was even more surprising. Murphy was holding a machine gun in one hand and the end of a seat belt rope in the other. Hung from the ceiling was the rope, and it was around Bellamy's neck like a noose. He stood onto of a shitty makeshift stool.

You've got to give Murphy props for creative uses for seat belts, at the very least.

At this point not only was I extremely confused, but I was having major flashbacks. I had started to ask Murphy what had given him the idea to do this, and then all the blood drained from my face.

'I see you kicking the crate out from under Murphy. And it makes me want to do the same to you.' The words I had spoken the day Murphy had returned rang through my head.

I didn't even have time to think of a clever thing to say, or anything at all really, when Murphy kicked the stool out from Bellamy's feet. At this point I was very distraught. I had wanted Bellamy gone, but this was a lot. Murphy ignored me and used the handle end of the gun to hit Bellamy in the chest, so he couldn't use his hands to free himself from choking.

Suddenly, the dropship doors started to open. Murphy froze, and finally it was my turn to think on my feet. I grabbed his forearm, yanking in him in my direction towards the stairs. He seemed to understand where I was leading, and nodded. I quickly jumped up the stairs and Murphy followed.

It took me a little longer to get up onto the second floor, so Murphy decided to grab my ass and literally push me up. And if I had been thinking, I would've called him on it. But in that moment all I could do was fear for our lives. For some reason, whenever Murphy got in trouble, I did too. Even when we were kids. Even weeks ago when he hadn't done anything, I still got reeled in.

Murphy slammed the hatch door closed, and took the loose bar near it and effectively locked the door.

"Thats not going to hold them forever." I said as Murphy sped past me to where all the empty bullets were and began rifling through them. "I don't want you to die because of this."

"Well I didn't want to keep living here if you felt like I couldn't protect you from them." Murphy spat back angrily, as he realized there was only one bullet. He grabbed it and then threw the container, all the empty bullet casings falling onto the floor. He turned around, and I could see how dead serious he was.

A silence spread, and we stared at each other for a moment. Murphy seemed at a loss, and I didn't exactly know where to go from there. Finally, my eyes spotted the can of gunpowder, and a dumb plan came into my mind.

"Then let's just fucking leave, Murphy." I ran past him to the gunpowder can, grabbing it and shaking it.

"You don't have to come with me. Bellamy knows you had nothing to do with this." Murphy said as he went to grab the can from me. Quickly, I withdrew my arm.

"I thought you knew me, Murphy. I'm not letting you leave here again without me." I spat back at him, throwing the can at the wall. The powder flew everywhere, coating the wall.

Murphy took a step closer to me, smiling. I was not having any of that though. Mother fucker was going to get me killed and he was happy about it. "We need to go, now." I said, my hands flying to his chest, pushing him towards the other wall.

He nodded, the smile slightly fading as my hands dropped from him. He shot the wall, and the gunpowder ignited. He grabbed me, shielding me from the fallout before his hand grasped mine.

Suddenly, I had found myself faced with having to jump onto a shitty ladder and down from almost the second story. Which, let me tell you, was not fun. I'm pretty sure I had sprained my knee from falling awkwardly, and Murphy had to help me run away from the dropship.

And our day only went downhill from there. Hard to believe, right?

* * *

"Let's just face it, I'm slowing us down." I admitted, wanting to cry. Not because I was slowing us down, but because my knee was causing shooting spasms of pain whenever my foot even brushed the ground. Something was pulled, or sprained, or something. I wasn't a medic.

Murphy sighed. He was all but carrying me at this point. "Sometimes you just need to shut up." Murphy huffed as he bent down, pulling me up into his arms so he could carry me.

"Aren't you tired of carrying me?" I asked, thinking back to when we had just landed on earth, and he had to carry me away from a tree.

"Yes." Murphy teased. "Shall I drop you right here, then?" I knew he was being sarcastic when he began to smirk, but I couldn't help but hold on tighter to his shoulder.

Murphy carried me for what had felt like hours before he finally grew tired. It was nearing dark anyways, and there was no way we'd be traveling in the dark. So we settled in next to each other, leaning against a tree.

Neither of us had rations. All we had was Murphy's machine gun that he kept slung over his shoulder and two of his knives. I had one in my back pocket, and he had one in his jacket pocket. The machine was useless anyways, it was bulletless.

Sitting down at that tree made me began to realize my choices. I had left Reed, and not only did I leave her, but as far as I knew, Monty was gone too.

"If I ever see Reed again, she's going to kill me for leaving." I mumbled, resting my head back on the tree and letting out a deep breath.

"It's not too late-" Murphy started, but before he could finish my hand whipped out and smacked his chest.

"And sometimes, you need to shut up too." I remarked, turning my head and glaring at Murphy. "Have you ever known me to leave you?"

He gave me a small smile before frowning and looking away. "No, but there have been plenty of times when you should've. Especially when I started killing people for revenge, that's not a normal thing to stand behind on."

I let out a deep huff of breath, letting my mind work through what I was going to say next.

"You kept my mother's ring, Murphy." I finally said, and his eyes shot back to me as I continued speaking. "So I know you want me here. And I want to be here for some reason. Maybe it is because we grew up together, so whatever way your brain's wiring is messed up, mine is too."

Murphy's eyes made their way to my lips, and I stared at his lips (Which, were chapped as always.) His head slowly got closer to mine, and was mere inches away when a tree branch nearby snapped. Murphy jumped up in surprise, his hand going to his knife in his pocket and raising it. I wanted to jump up too, but there was no way in hell my leg would let me get up on my own.

In the dark we could see figures closing in, and before I could even whisper to Murphy, I felt a knife at my throat for the second time in my life. It was becoming some sort of horrible pattern for me. I'd be with Murphy, and suddenly my life was at stake. I looked over and saw a bald man wearing war paint and all black clothing.

Within ten minutes Murphy had surrendered, and we were both tied to different trees, about 5 feet away from each other. They didn't even bother to move me from the tree I had been leant across, which was nice I suppose.

Murphy had played it cool. He had told them what they wanted to know, gave them the walkie (which I didn't even know he had), but didn't mention the minefield. That at least gave them a fighting chance, and I was silently hoping that would be enough. I don't think I could ever forgive myself if Reed died because of it.

Don't ask why I'd blame myself. Self-loathing childhood, probably.

They were satisfied with the information until they're troops hit the minefield. Then they were flat-out pissed. Murphy had given them a slight cheeky smile, and bald man smirked before taking his knife and freaking stabbing my thigh. I was two for two with the left leg, and now the combination of pains made me want to forsake lefty. Lefty could fuck off.

"That's for not telling us about the minefield." Baldy said as he pulled the knife out of my thigh. After that not only was did I want to forsake lefty, but lefty was bleeding and I was probably a few hours away from getting crazy from blood-loss.

If looks could kill though, let me tell you. Baldy would be dead if the glare Murphy was giving him could kill. The last time I had seen him that mad, he had just been hanged. So you know, not good.

"What do we do now?" Baldy asked the woman, who appeared to be in lead. Major props, you have got to respect a women in charge.

"Now, we attack." She said, and quickly all the grounders filed out. It was super convenient of them to you know, not untie us. And by convenient I mean horrible. I had to figure out a way to get to my knife, because Murphy's had been thrown into a tree twenty feet away. Then, I had to cut the rope while Murphy watched.

He said he wasn't judging me, but you try untying ropes when someone you like is watching. Actually, try doing anything when someone you like is watching. It's horrible. I could feel my cheeks heating up with embarrassment, but luckily it was too dark for Murphy to see that.

I crawled over to him once my ropes were cut. It was much easier to cut his than mine, but anything is easier when you're not tied up.

"What should we do?" I asked as he stood up. I stayed slumped on the ground, using the knife to cut off a part of the hem of my shirt to make a bandage for my leg.

Suddenly, the sky erupted with color. In one moment the color was there, and then it was gone, and smoke was billowing from the direction of the dropship.

"Now," Murphy began as he walked over and pulled his knife out of the tree. "We wait." He said as he walked back to me, sitting down and leaning against the tree behind me before he pulled me into him.

I had no clue what we were waiting for. But I could take comfort in Murphy's warmth, and as his breath tickled my face, I realized it didn't really matter at the moment. We had each other, we'd figure out the rest later.

Or at least I had hoped we would. Because neither of us are the best at planning.


End file.
